THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996 TAG: 9610310049
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 48 lines
TAKE A SNACK between meals and skip this one.
Even for Stephen King's rather unsubtle style, it's pretty simple and manipulative.
A 300-pound, highly successful lawyer starts to lose weight, even though he's regularly pigging out on every turkey leg and whipped-cream dessert in sight. It takes him awhile, much longer than it does the audience, to figure out that a curse has been put on him.
The guy is literally wasting away to nothing, but with a good deal less style than the classic sci-fi film ``The Incredible Shrinking Man.''
It seems that the lawyer once ran over, and killed, a Gypsy woman. Consequently, his judge friend and his police chief friend pull strings to get him off. Before long, all of them are not fit to be seen in public.
All the Gypsies are themselves cursed with overacting and grotesque makeup. The head Gypsy, incidentally, is an unrecognizable Michael Constantine, who dates back to an Emmy win for playing the school principal in the classic TV series ``Room 222.''
To stretch this out to the required 90-minute running time, varied subplots are trotted in. The lawyer (Robert John Burke in different stages of weight loss) goes into a jealous fit when he suspects his wife. Joe Mantegna, in an unfortunate career mistake, plays a Mafia leader who volunteers to wage war against the curse.
As usual, Stephen King himself shows up in a cameo role. It's understandable, though, that he didn't use his real name when this book came out. He used the pseudonym Richard Bachman. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by SPELLING FILMS
Billy Halleck (Robert John Burke) before, left, and after a curse is
placed on him in ``Stephen King's Thinner.''
Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Stephen King's Thinner''
Cast: Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna, Lucinda Jenney, Michael
Constantine
Director: Tom Holland
MPAA rating: R (language, disgusting diseases, sexual
suggestions)
Mal's rating: one and 1/2 stars by CNB