IT

Finally Stephen King gets an adaptation this summer worth being proud over!

Based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, IT follows a group of high school rejects dubbed “The Losers Club” over course of the summer of 1989 after a horrific event involving a paper boat, a sewage drain and a strange clown creature named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgard) leads to one of the Losers’ little brothers, Georgie (Jackson Robert Scott), disappearing one rainy afternoon seemingly without a trace. Determined to prove that his brother is still alive, Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) and his fellow Losers, Ben (Jeremy Ray Taylor), Bev (Sophia Lillis), Richie (Finn Wolfhard), Stan (Wyatt Oleff), Mike (Chosen Jacobs), and Eddie (Jack Dylan Grazer), make it their mission to find Georgie at all costs, figure out the mystery behind the evil entity they call It, and most importantly, survive the summer with their lives intact.

Full disclosure: I’m a big Stephen King fan. I’ve read my fair share of his books and watched most of his novel-to-screen adaptations, even knowingly walked into one of this summer’s biggest flops and disappointments – The Dark Tower – pretending that the film wouldn’t be a complete disaster (it was), so I have to be honest before moving on with this review: IT is one of the few King works that I actually haven’t read. I know, I know, shame on me, but I thoroughly enjoyed the original IT miniseries adaptation and legitimately own a copy of the book itself, but for some reason or another, I never got around to cracking open its dusty pages and delving into the thing head first.

Which is one of the reasons why I was so excited to see this film in the first place. Going in I only had a vague remembrance of IT as a character and a story, so as far as I was concerned, this was my first real foray into the twisted tale of Pennywise the Dancing Clown and the group of friends it decides to terrorize over the course of one long, lazy, violent summer. I’m happy to report that not only is this one of the best Stephen King adaptations around, but it’s also one of the most surprising films of the year, mostly due to the fact that this film – while almost solely being billed as a straight up horror flick – stands on its own as a movie that gives us a rather touching and dramatic coming of age story while still delivering disturbing and downright chilling evil clown antics that’ll make your skin crawl at every turn.

Being based on a rather long book (which may or may not be the real reason why I haven’t read it), IT takes its time as the script slowly unravels each character’s story arc and purpose, their gradual encounters with Pennywise, and their constant push in finding out where Georgie has been stolen off to. Coming in at a bit longer of a runtime than I really felt necessary, IT gives each plot thread and scene room to breathe almost to a fault. While I enjoy the “fullness” of this film and what the filmmakers managed to accomplish with everything they stuffed into it, I can’t help but feel like the plot drags at times, even becomes a bit formulaic as we bounce from what are essentially vignettes of each character’s own little personal conflicts, to scenes of pure dramatic weight, emotion and circumstance, to scenes of fanatical terror, then back around again and so on. I felt like I was watching a film that wasn’t sure what type of genre it wanted to be, excelling in both the horror aspects and dramatic storytelling angles the script threw at us, but never fully being able to bridge that gap between the two in an especially coherent or smooth way. This isn’t a knock on the movie itself – I loved nearly everything I saw horror, dramatic or otherwise – but I often found myself feeling like I was watching two distinct films that never quite synced up the way the filmmakers intended.

Either way, both the horror and more traditional elements are handled well, from making Pennywise himself a truly terrifying force to be reckoned with, to making us feel for every growing pain our loser heroes grapple with. Anything of substance seems to have been handled with the utmost of care, including the sweet love triangle between three of our leads, the very real and integral bond of camaraderie and loyalty all friends share and exhibit, all the way down to the throwaway lines that seem to do nothing more than to give us a deeper insight into who each character is independently. IT’s detail oriented approach to the subject matter is a welcome change considering not many adaptations, Stephen King or otherwise, spare the time for anything more than a quick gliding through the allotted source material’s story beats as painlessly as possible before the credits roll.

All that being said, none of this would have mattered had the cast not been up to the task of selling this script with everything they had, and to them, and director Andy Muschietti alike, I tip my hat. Not only does each young actor portray their characters with the utmost of care and realness, but Muschietti never flinches from the tone he sets and the rules of his world, leading to some great interactions between not only the various members of the Losers, but between them and their greatest fears that our clown antagonist relentlessly throws at them whenever they’re alone. And speaking of Pennywise, any reservations I had about Bill Skarsgard in the titular role (I really didn’t like him in Hemlock Grove) quickly evaporated the first time he’s onscreen. I won’t spoil the little intricacies in his performance, but I looked forward to every scene he was in and was rarely left disappointed. If any thing, I was disappointed because there wasn’t enough Pennywise, but I guess that’s what sequels are for.

If I had to nitpick something other than the at times slow pacing and bloated length, I’d have to shame the filmmakers for making the character of Mike seem to be more of a means to an end than an integral part of the overarching story and core group of Losers. His storyline, while interesting and well acted, was a definite weak link and the ties he has to the group always felt secondary at best. It’s a shame too because the script does such a great job at making pretty much everyone in the film feel like real characters complete with their own dynamics and moments to shine, while Mike just ends up feeling severely underused and regulated to doing very little in the grand scheme of things. He does have his moments, but I’d have liked to see him take a more integral role in the group.

IT is a much more thoughtful film than the fright fest flick most of the marketing of this film seems to want you to believe, straddling the line somewhere between a great slice of life story about a group of friends growing up and a straight up horror film complete with all the trappings. The acting is superb and the overall tone and direction of the movie is solid, but the sometimes sluggish pacing and a nagging “two movie” feeling along with some odd CG wizardry choices stop this film from being a the best Stephen King adaptation of all time.

So head to the theater and check this one out ASAP and remember if you do, you’ll float toooooo…..