***
out of ****
Back
when Stephen King released his novel “11/22/63” back in 2011, I
couldn't wait to get my hands on it. King has long been my favorite
author, ever since first reading “Christine” in 1983. And the
Kennedy assassination has long been one of my favorite subjects, and
I've read dozens of books about it from the most well reasoned
(“Reclaiming History”) to the nuttiest (“Best Evidence” and
“Rush to Judgment”). Favorite author, favorite subject.... and
what turned out to be a great, engrossing novel. Despite a few minor
changes in the storyline, I am very happy to say that Hulu's limited
miniseries “11.22.63” does that wonderful book justice.
James
Franco is Jake Epping, a recently divorced high school teacher living
in a small town in Maine. One of his closest friends is Al
Templeton, the proprietor of a local diner. One day Jake finds Al
looking deathly ill and much older – and Al's excuse is that he has
found a time portal and has been living in the past for the past
several years. Al's appearance is due to the time he spent there and
the fact that he is dying of cancer and doesn't have much time left.
He shows a dubious Jake the portal, which transports him back to
October 1960, much to Jake's astonishment.
After
Jake returns to 2016, Al tells him about his plans to change the
past. He believes that the world would be a far better place if JFK
had not been assassinated in 1963, and he'd hoped to stay there long
enough to prevent it. He believes this would prevent the Vietnam
War, among other things. But now he will be dead before having
his chance and he wants to recruit Jake to take over the mission for
him. Jake initially resists, but when Al dies in the night Jake
decides to go ahead with the plan before Al's body is found and Jake's
access to the time portal is removed.
The
portal only transports you back to the very same time in October 1960,
so Jake will have to live in the past for over three years before the
day of the assassination. He needs to blend in with the times (which
means a shave and a haircut before anything else), and find a way to
make money. He does most of this through sports betting but he also moves to Texas and takes a job as a schoolteacher. There he awaits Lee Harvey Oswald, who at
the time had been living in Russia but would soon return to America.
Watching
Jake live in the early 60s is fantastic, and Hulu did a very nice job
of always looking authentically like the past. The cars and costumes, the
styles and mannerisms, all come off very well. While Jake is
dedicated to his mission he is also human and finds friends and even
a love interest, which all make his mission more difficult. He
shadows Oswald when he returns trying to determine whether there was a
conspiracy or not, and tries to do whatever possible to determine how
to best save JFK.
Some
have complained that Franco wasn't very good in this 7 hour long
epic, but I thought he was great. I found he was almost exactly the
Jake from King's novel. Sarah Gadon as Jake's love interest Sadie
was the weak link in the casting, as she seemed far too
young both for the part and to be romantically involved with Franco's character.
But overall the casting was fine, and even the minor changes (such as
a much expanded part for the character Bill Turcotte) all worked for
me. I was even tickled to death that they didn't change the ending,
which while not particularly feel-good was pretty much what King
wrote.
If
you have the time, this is an 8 part miniseries that invites a
bingewatch, because it's really just a 7 hour long movie. It's
extremely well done and I hope other filmmakers see what an
achievement it is and try to develop more epic novels this way,
rather than the hack and slash jobs they often have to do in order to
fit them into a 2 hour big screen script.
If
you have access to “11.22.63”, and any interest in unique sci-fi
time travel stories, you won't be disappointed.
