In the undergrowth it is easy to distinguish motifs and places, Stephen Kingin this plastic seventy-year-old veteran, goes through many recent works. Mr Harrigan’s phonethe short story included in the recent collection La sangre manda is one of the most significant in this regard: an old man as a trigger for a first-person account by a curious young man (an element also present in the recent Storyc), death as the last frontier, a treasure hidden in the old man’s safe (end of duty) and, finally, access to an alien world like what King killed for his old Mascot (old, but soon to be adapted by the Duffers, “Stranger Things”).
Despite the influence of the original story, “Mr. Harrigan’s Phone” is a worthy effort on the part of John Lee Hancock (Blind side, Small details) turn to the two directors who best understood and nurtured the “dramatic Stephen King”, Frank Darabont (Life imprisonment) and Rob Reiner (count on me). your movie about Netflix It doesn’t have the packaging or hypnotic power of theirs, but it captures well the essence of the inexplicable shadows that emerge behind everyday life that is sometimes sweet and comforting, but deep down unapologetic.
smartphone, that machine that at one point in the story Harrigan describes as a grumpy old man who seems to feel everything, like an “initiation drug” into an unknown future, is an element as unsettling as an echo of the supernatural itself. Vision of the other world in Mr Harrigan’s phone It is based not on certainty, but on coincidences that, yes, seem to be judgments of fate (like that last message). And what awaits a person who will finally stop throwing into the lake what will become his most important life companion, a telephone with the Internet, is a significant gesture of this.
Mr Harrigan’s phone will disappoint those expecting a film of, shall we say, outright horror. Here this feeling penetrates the squad, the protagonist is more of a witness than a hero or a victim. Understanding this approach is vital to appreciating the contribution of Hancock, who does not shy away from the genre because of the excess of claims, although sometimes it seems that he eludes him (it is a horror film without panic and shocking effects). The presence of the dazzling Donald Sutherland and young Stephen King veteran Jaden Martell (IT’s protagonist) ultimately supports the foundation of a more than worthy film.
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