There's something about Needful Things that I can't help but like. I always have ever since it first came out. Yes, it's a shadow of it's book, greatly condensing all the various story lines to fit a two hour movie. But yet, I still enjoy it for what it is, a searing strike against rampant consumerism, taken to the most extreme point with the devil himself tempting people with goods that they would be willing to do anything to get.
In quiet small town of Castle Rock, Maine, a new store is opening called Needful Things and piques the curiosity of many of the townsfolk. Every person who goes in there manages to find a prized possession or item they have always wanted, whether it is a figurine they cherished that had broken, a valuable baseball card, a letter man's jacket thought to be lost to time, the first edition of a classic novel, a horse race game that can predict the winners of the days races with complete accuracy or an ancient trinket with magical healing properties. The proprietor of the shop, Leland Gaunt (played by Max Von Sydow), is all to happy to sell the newly discovered treasure, but at a steep price. In addition to the monetary payment, he requires a small favor. They start as small pranks such as muddying up someone's freshly hung laundry but escalate as the purchases go on to acts of vandalism and destruction. Unbeknownst to the residents, Gaunt is carefully orchestrating the various feuds and grudges to escalate until the town falls into full on chaos. The one man who can't be tempted is the town sheriff, Alan Pangborn (played by Ed Harris), who starts digging into the past of his town's mysterious new proprietor and is horrified to discover he just might be the devil himself, come to tear apart his small town.
There is something about this movie I've always really liked. I know deep down it's not particularly great, or even good, and there are moments that are rather badly acted and way over the top. But the underlying themes of the film still work, with people being seduced by material goods, the swipes at rampant consumerism taken to the most absurd levels. That sort of deep seeded need to have something and willing to do anything to get it. That's what they are able to tap into here and take it such perverse levels. That was something Stephen King was always good at and it comes through in the film as well. It is also anchored by two good performances by Max Von Sydow and Ed Harris. Sydow in particular is clearly having a blast in his role, playing the clearly supernaturally evil Gaunt. It's a wonderfully over the top performance and entertaining to watch. Harris has the trickier role as the white knight sheriff, but he finds the right note of quietly defeated and annoyed to play. There's a great scene early in the film when he breaks up a fight between his deputy Norris Ridgewick (played by Ray McKinnon) and the shady town selectman Danforth "Buster" Keaton (played by JT Walsh) and tells them how he moved to Castle Rock to get away from all the bullshit and fighting in the big city only to discover that everyone is insane everywhere, before walking away telling them to fight it out and he'll arrest the one that's still alive. It's a wonderfully telling moment for his character. J.T Walsh is also really good at the gambling addict, embezzling and temperamental town selectman Danforth Keaton who really hates it when you call him Buster. His dealings with Gaunt lead for him to eventually have a total mental breakdown that Walsh captures perfectly.
The film was directed by Fraser C Heston, who does a good job staging the action throughout the film, especially towards the end when everything goes into complete chaos. Patrick Doyle provided the score for the film and manages to come up with a fantastic score that is almost better than the movie itself. I've always really enjoyed it with it's choral backgrounds and gothic themes.
Overall, Needful Things may not be a great film, nor maybe not even a good one, but it is an entertaining one. It is worth noting though that the films director, Fraser C Heston, is the son of Charlton Heston and played the infant Moses in the beginning of The Ten Commandments and Max Von Sydow played Jesus in The Greatest Story Ever Told so perhaps I just find it really amusing that at some point Moses told Jesus how to play the Devil.
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