SAD CLOWN FACE

MOVIE
IT: Chapter Two
Jessica Chastain, James McAvoy
Director Andrew Muschietti
Review Ray Chan

Writer Stephen King makes a cameo here, as he so often does in movie adaptations of his stories.

    Playing an antique shop owner, he turns down an offer by now grown-up and well-known author Bill Denbrough (James McAvoy) to autograph one of his own books, pointing out that he didn’t like the ending.
    It’s also part of a running gag employed throughout in which Bill can’t seem to come up with satisfactory conclusions to his novels, a common criticism of King’s own efforts.
    The comment seems an intentional reference from King as to how he expects audiences to react, but there’s certainly a degree of accuracy about it, summarising as it does the feelings of many viewers who have to endure almost three hours of a film that doesn’t really solve the riddle of who or what the titular clownish monster is.
    Do you need to have watched the first instalment to understand Chapter Two? You probably do, for despite the many recaps that are shown, it’s still hard going for a newcomer to catch up with what has gone before.
    In short, the movie occurs 27 years after seven kids who call themselves the Losers Club banded together in the small Maine town of Derry in 1989, to defeat an evil supernatural force named Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård), which primarily takes the form of a pernicious Punchinello and gobbles up small children.
    The story opens with an uncomfortably prolonged sequence focusing on a brutal hate crime that goes unpunished, setting off a chain of events leading to the reappearance of Pennywise, ready to again feed his blood lust after almost three decades' absence.
    Of the original club, only Mike Hanlon (Isaiah Mustafa) has remained in the town, precisely because he anticipated the creepy clown’s return, and who – with Pennywise now having announced his return – calls on his former childhood friends to return home to battle this evil anew.
    As well as leader Bill, each of the Losers is apparently a winner in life: Beverly Marsh (Jessica Chastain) is a fashion designer; Ben Hanscom (played by Kiwi Jay Ryan) an architect, who has shed his baby fat for washboard abs; Richie Tozier (Bill Hader) a stand-up comedian; Eddie Kaspbrak (James Ransone) a risk analyst; and Stanley Uris (Andy Bean) is fabulously wealthy.
    All but one of them make it back to Derry, with their reunion triggering a return of the memories they had long suppressed.
    Mike, who has done some research involving Indian shamans, reveals to his peers that he knows how exactly Pennywise can be killed, but not before they must all confront their own past experiences with the horrific harlequin.
    The movie is replete with digital effects that show off scores of monstrous beings of various shapes and sizes, but audiences these days are so indifferent to such overkill that the only truly frightening effects are realised through well-placed jump scares.
    In fact, in the attempt to bedazzle the viewer, this sequel misses out on the nuances and finer details, in particular the symbolism and character development that made the first chapter ultimately a more well-rounded product.
    Despite seeming to run on interminably, none of those extraneous minutes are employed in the service of themes such as the power of friendship, reconciling with the past, and, at the heart of the narrative, standing up to one’s fears and phobias.
    The movie is not a full-on disappointment, but the talents of such a stellar cast seems wasted in a production that's more a case of the flesh being willing whilst the spirit is weak. Send in the frowns.

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