‘You’re a crappy writer… and a crappy guest speaker...’
Originally aired on the Lifetime channel to lukewarm reviews, Big Driver is one of the lesser-known Stephen King adaptations. The source material appeared as a novella in the collection Full Dark, No Stars – a nasty set of four stories that push the boundaries even by King’s standards. This particular story is King’s only foray into the rape-revenge subgenre and stripped of the nuance found in King’s prose this TV movie version of Big Driver is only occasionally successful…
Tess Thorne (Maria Bello) is a writer of mystery fiction who accepts a gig as a keynote speaker at a literary function held at a local library and organised by group leader Ramona (Ann Dowd). On the way home from the event, Tess is brutally raped and left for dead by a huge trucker named Lester (Will Harris). Tortured by the attack, Tess sets out to find Lester and pay him back.
While the novella pulls no punches, it never feels gratuitous like the long rape sequence here does. We also don’t have as much character development despite a decent performance from Bello in the lead role. The characters serve to move the plot forward without ever feeling like real people who might actually exist. Dowd is reliable as ever and a cameo for Joan Jett as the badass owner of a biker bar is a lot of fun but veteran TV director Mikael Salomon (Band of Brothers) struggles with tonal consistency and rushed storytelling.
Big Driver won’t be anyone’s favourite King movie but despite some flaws, it is at least competent and mostly entertaining. In this case, I would recommend reading the original novella (and the collection in which it first appeared) and skipping this iteration.