Thinner

Starring: Robert John Burke, Joe Mantegna, Lucinda Jenney, Michael Constantine, Kari Wuhrer, Bethany Joy Lenz
Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Thriller
1996

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: After accidentally killing a gypsy woman, a lawyer (Robert John Burke) is cursed by her widower, and he strangely begins losing weight uncontrollably.

Review:

Tim: I was certainly looking forward to Thinner- I'm a big Stephen King fan, and the premise behind this movie is quite interesting. While the whole gypsy curse thing did feel a little bit ridiculous, imagine getting thinner and thinner and thinner. That's such a frightening, cool concept, and it was fun to watch on screen. As a whole, however, this movie was not nearly as good as it should have been.

I do want to talk more about the premise. Imagine if you continually lost weight, no matter what you did? If you were overweight to begin with, this would be pretty incredible. The movie does a good job of depicting the initial gleefulness at such easy weight loss. That idea especially hits home in America, where obesity is a massive (ha) epidemic. However, what happens once you lose TOO much weight? The excitement would very quickly dissipate and be replaced with horrific fear. The movie does a good job of showing that as well.

Given that this movie was made during the mid-90s, the film does a decent job showing the weight loss. This was the single most crucial element of the process. It helped by having the lead wear a fat suit and have some decent makeup to make him appear quite obese. The weight loss was good, but it was limited by the technology of the day. Makeup gave him a more gaunt appearance. With the special effects and technology of today, that transformation could have been truly shocking. In this film, it's impressive, but not quite as powerful as it could have been.

The cast was pretty disappointing. Robert John Burke was okay in the lead role, but I'm surprised they couldn't get a better actor. Burke wasn't exactly a showstopping talent in the mid-90s and he adds only a little to this film. I can think of dozens of better actors for this part. He is just too bland and uncharismatic. The movie would have been significantly better with a stronger actor in the lead role. Joe Mantegna was pretty fun in his supporting role. Michael Constantine was sufficiently creepy. The rest of the cast was very forgettable.

While the premise was great, the execution was simply lacking. It's not that this is a terrible movie- far from it. It's interesting and creepy and memorable in its portrayal of a man losing weight to death. It is based on work from Stephen King, so you know there is some value to it. However, as an entire movie, it just isn't nearly effective enough. It's not frightening enough, it doesn't etch itself into your memory quite enough. The cast is too weak, the thrills too few. Thinner is an average thriller.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



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