But this link and how Duddits achieved it, is never explained or even alluded to. We are treated to a scene where Duddits constructs a Dreamcatcher that links the four - a scene that wasn't in the book. We are never shown the closeness that developed between the four friends and their mentally challenged sidekick. Unfortunately for the two actors, like every other character in the novel, Duddits is underdeveloped. This puts in motion the events that lead to Henry escaping and heading to Derry to find Duddits.ĭuddits is very much like the Duddits of the novel and Andrew Robb, who played young Duddits played him quite well, as did Donnie Wahlberg. He asks Underhill what his wife and daughters would think of him if he knew of the slaughter that was about to take place upon his commands. In the movie, Henry reads Owen Underhill’s mind and appeals to his since of decency. Otherwise, Freeman plays Curtis like a straight military man. We’re given just one instance of his mania – when he shoots the soldier for letting a woman and her four year old daughter leave the quarantine area. Instead of a caricature, he is not developed at all. Kurtz (Curtis in the movie, played by Morgan Freeman) was one dimensional in the novel, coming across as a caricature from a bad political cartoon.

While it was just a warehouse of Jonesy’s own conjuring as opposed to the Tracker Brothers, it still didn’t work.Ĭol. This was good screenwriting, lest the notion make even less sense to movie goers than novel readers. This concept is introduced earlier by the filmmakers, with Jonesy telling his friends about his warehouse of memories and how he has a secret filing drawer where he keeps his secrets. The novel’s weakest point was Jonesy locking himself in the Tracker Brothers’ depot in his brain and hiding “files” that were his memories. In the movie, the viewer just isn’t made to care enough about them. While the story languished for being over-told and the villain was a cartoon character, it was hard not to like Henry and Jonesy. In the movie, they were insipid and under-developed. The only redeeming quality of the novel was the strength of two of the main characters, Henry and Jonesy.

Two go off into the stormy night for groceries when the aliens invade. The four friends have gathered in the hunting cabin. Goldman and Kasdan stick very close to the story as it was laid out by King in the novel.

Dreamcatcher novel review