The reason shopping bags need air holes.
The news of a new store opening in sleepy Castle Rock is sufficient to set local tongues a-wagging and the hearts a-flutter, especially when it is found to be a decidedly out of the ordinary business indeed.
The owner is Leland Gaunt (Max Von Sydow) – an outsider – and his store boasts an eclectic bunch of random oddities, keepsakes and artefacts, with strangely at least one thing per visitor greatly desired by the prospective clients, often for reasons only known to themselves, and almost just about within their budget. It is these two words – just about – that impel these individuals to cut deals with the mysterious Mr Gaunt in order to cover the slight shortfall between the price tag and pocketbook with favours.
Not those favours dirty bird… The favours demanded by Mr Gaunt are seemingly innocent, or mischievous at worst, and for the most part they set upon their assigned tasks with relish.
Now the locals of Castle Rock were already a colourful bunch of eccentrics, oddballs and downright nutbars before Needful Things opened its doors, and while each interaction with Leland Gaunt starts with an amiable conversation and a flashback specific to the relationship between the individual and the item they are considering, it inevitably leads
to a swift escalation of violent and often insane activity.
Von Sydow obviously enjoys playing the charming newcomer with a smile, a bargain, and a secret of his own, the ying to his yang being Sherrif Pangbourne (Ed Harris), the calm and rational peacekeeper protecting the locals, often from themselves.
The movie unfolds with reasonable predictability even to those who haven’t devoured the Stephen King novel a couple of decades ago, but as Leland Gaunt himself remarks shortly after a massive explosion in near proximity, Needful Things has “a few murders and a couple of nice explosions, but it is hardly my best work”.
Pretty much sums up what the director might say about the film.
Final Rating – 6 / 10. Unlike the trinkets in the titular store, Needful Things is hardly necessary or vital to perhaps anyone aside from Stephen King die-hards.
