Gerald's Game

Director: Mike Flanagan
Year Released: 2017
Rating: 2.5

Title businessman (Bruce Greenwood, who does not skip ab day) takes his younger wife Jessie (Carla Gugino) to a remote house and handcuffs her to the bed for some creepy 'role playing' ... but the Viagra gives him a heart attack (oops!) and she's trapped without a key to free herself (in her panicked mind, she begins having conversations with her dead husband). It's based on the novel by Maine's own Mr. King, once again exploring his feminist side (like he did in Carrie and Dolores Claiborne), with Jessie coming to terms with her disturbing past with toxic men, particularly her perverted father (Henry Thomas). Gugino is very good in the lead (as well as playing her empowered 'double') but the story is presented heavy-handedly, leading up to a clumsy (this is putting it mildly) third act in which she confronts a mysterious grave robber named Moonlight Man (Carel Struycken) who didn't have a whole lot to do with the preceding tale (I was under the impression he was strictly in her imagination). One major detail that nagged at me: why not at least try to look at the iPhone on the table next to you to call for help, even though the battery might be low? Stretch out those bare tootsies and tell Siri you've found yourself in a crackpot Stephen King scenario ... she'll know just what to do.