This Stephen King adaptation tries to be too many things at once. A combination horror/science fiction/thriller, among other things, the film takes many twists and turns with little understanding by the audience. Only gradually do we piece together the significance of the handicapped kid and his relationship with his rescuers. The final surprise, regarding the handicapped kid, is just idiotic. It was an intriguing idea that we were never prepared for in the movie. Events occur in the movie and then the explanations play catchup. The acting and characterization in here was nothing special, as the story shifts back and forth frequently between characters so much that there's no time to really identify with anyone. There are several interesting ideas in here, such as attempting to shield memories in the library mind of one of the characters. However, they're lost in the lack of story exposition, characters without motivation, and overall length of the film. Something tells me that the book is much better than this. I'm not a King fan, but I've seen enough other adaptations of his work to know that this is not one of the better ones. After waiting 4 years, this is a major disappointment from director Lawrence Kasdan. *1/2 of 4 stars.