MovieChat Forums > Gerald's Game (2017) Discussion > Good movie -- Just a few nitpicky points

Good movie -- Just a few nitpicky points


I though this movie was good enough. I expected it to be difficult to watch a movie where a person is chained to a bed the whole movie, but they did a good job of keeping it moving along. I haven't read the book, so I don't know what's in there. It might vary from the movie. On the whole the movie is fine, but a few things seems odd:

I found it odd that the dog went to their house. The timeline in the movie is not clear, but it did not seem like the place where he almost hit the dog in the road was close to their destination. The dog was mostly skiddish (not very friendly) and so I don’t see him following the car. The nearest house was a half a mile away. (And why would she say the dog looked hungry? I didn't think he was a skinny dog. He just looked like a dog to me... He might have stuffed himself on that roadkill.)

Sort of similar comment about his taking the pill. The timeline in the movie is not clear, but the way it was shot makes it looks like they go to the bedroom within 5 minutes of his taking the pill, which is not enough time for the medication to take effect. Later they say that an hour elapsed from the time the got to the house until the went to the bedroom; but of course they could have spent 45 minutes unpacking, looking in the fridge, feeding the dog, etc.

Isn’t that a ton of meat to give that dog? And wouldn’t a dog eat most or all of that meat, if it were given to him? And if so, then how the heck could the dog be hungry enough to start eating Gerald only 20 minutes later?

I did not think Gerald would have struck the floor with enough force to cause major bleeding. He just rolled off the bed onto the floor. Even if he bumped his head, that sort of thing clots fairly quickly. It’s not like he was stabbed or shot. (Dead people don't bleed more than live people. If anything, they bleed less.)

The heart attack scene did not seem realistic. I will defer to medical experts on this, but my understanding is that this is the “Hollywood” version of a heart attack, and that in reality most heart attacks are a slower process.

In a related vein, Gerald was in really good shape. We don’t know his cholesterol levels and blood pressure and that stuff, but he was in tremendous shape for his age; or even for a 20 year old for that matter. He was getting a little stressed, but it’s not like he was really over-exerting himself. And he seems like the type of person to have regular EKGs and heart x-rays. The scene would have been more believable if he had a spare tire – just saying.

The handcuffs struck me as really odd. She says that he has not touched her in months. To break out the cuffs seems rather extreme for the first encounter after months, when there is already a ton of baggage there. This seems quite out of line.

I was surprised that she cut her hand to that degree. I thought the idea was to just bleed to lubricate the area; not to “deglove” the hand. (And why not drink that last bit of water rather than just throwing it out – just in case the escape plan does not work. Water is actually a decent lubricant too.)

She started seeing hallucinations very quickly (within about an hour or two after Gerald’s death). That is awefully fast to start going batty (hearing voices etc.). I know Gerald sort of says that she avoids problems, and she was freaked out by Gerald's death and her entrapment, but this is a bit odd. (Maybe it plays better in the book.)

Wouldn’t she have tried to reach the phone much earlier? It seems like she let a few hours go by before she even tried to get the phone with her feet.

I have trouble buying that the bed-posts were “reinforced” (as Gerald’s ghost/image tells her). Is there supposed to be a metal rod in there? I’ve never heard of furniture being reinforced. I mean -- is this bed designed for handcuffs? (And I have another post on this – but I think she could have gotten out of the bed and gone to that key earlier.)

Movie is watchable and interesting and stuff, but these things seemed a bit unrealistic.

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Based on this analysis, I'm not sure how you can watch or read any form of fiction at all unless it references things that you know absolutely nothing about. I usually don't say this but you really are overanalyzing this film for the sake of finding frustration it seems. One observation in particular, your handcuffs line.

Yes, it was extreme, and yes it was quite out of line. But not impossible, and not unreasonable that someone would do this in his position. Both her immediate and subsequent discomfort also reinforce how extreme this is.

This isn't odd or nitpick-worthy. It's just something that happened.

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