R, 2h 49min, Horror
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“IT” was an early review for this column and one of my favorite films of 2017. The core cast of wonderful young actors (dubbed “The Losers”), the brilliant terror-filled performance of Bill Skarsgård as Pennywise the Dancing Clown, and the brilliant way the source material was executed by director Andy Muschietti made it one of my favorite studio horror films of the decade.
Smartly adapting only the first half of Stephen King’s almost 1200 page tome last go-around, the filmmakers have returned to produce the second (and final) story of “The Losers,” with the titular heroes returning twenty-seven years after their first encounter with the terrifying Pennywise, having grown up and moved away, until a devastating phone call brings them all back.
Dun dun dun!
The film is dense and fills its almost three hour runtime with a lot of material, interweaving flashback scenes with the child cast while introducing us to their adult counterparts played by all-star performers including (Sacramento’s own) Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy, Bill Hader, and James Ransone, among others.
The adult cast is good, with standouts being McAvoy as the stuttering Bill Denbrough and Ransone doing an almost too perfect impression of young actor Jack Dylan Grazer’s Eddie Kaspbrak. Solid performances aside, the sequences with the grown-up cast drags the film down for at least the first act. The re-introduction of the kids in flashback scenes elevates the material and gets it back on track.
The opening of the film is understandably slow. After a brutal first sequence that shows the return of the clown of all our nightmares, screenwriter Gary Dauberman needs to get the band back to Derry, Maine. We see where each one of their adult lives have taken them until they all converge at a Chinese restaurant and start to remember the trauma that brought their childhoods together almost 30 years ago. My issue wasn’t the set up or the length, it was the execution. The dialogue in some areas doesn’t do talent like McAvoy and Chastain many favors. I was at a loss at how such quick, witty and impressive dialog in Chapter One could be replaced by clunky and sometimes cliche lines of exposition in Chapter Two.
A quick look at the crew list shows that two of the three original writers – Chase Palmer and Cary Joji Fukunaga – were not involved with the scripting of Chapter Two, leaving writing duties squarely on the shoulders of Dauberman. I can’t be sure, but this could be part of the problem with this section of the screenplay.
Luckily the film rebounds. Act II splits the adult “Losers” up to face some of their greatest fears alone while weaving flashbacks with Chapter One’s cast, and the film begins to feel like the companion piece we were all hoping for. I can’t overstate how good the chemistry is with this original young cast. I wish there were more adventures with these young men and women. The actors are wonderful, their chemistry is unique and they have that rare quality of bringing heart to a horror movie. I wish we got a whole series of different scary adventures with this group.
Speaking of the midway point of the film, keep an eye out for a very special cameo from someone with a long history with the story of “It.”
The final fight with the entity known as Pennywise is epic, intense, and satisfying. Moments of it get tied up in some ritualistic gobbledygook that tries to explain how to destroy the clown (yes, I know it’s in the novel, but this also slowed down acts I and II), but overall the intense visuals, pitch-perfect performance by Skarsgård, and heart of the story stuck the landing.
And the kids. You got to end the movie with the kids!
While not as satisfying as Chapter One (which also had the element of surprise on its side), Chapter Two still delivers. It’s not a perfect movie, but damn if I don’t love these characters.
I’ll just never look at a fortune cookie the same way again.
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