3.5 stars out of 5
IT was my No. 4 top movie of 2017. Chapter Two, on the other hand, should file for Chapter 11. (Hmm, that doesn’t really make sense, but I’m sticking with it.) What happened? Director Andy Muschietti is back; so is Gary Dauberman, one of the original’s three screenwriters. Pennywise is terrifying as ever. Even Stephen King has a bit part. So what’s different here?
Grown-ups. They always ruin things.
It’s 27 years later in Derry, Maine, and we do get our talented young cast from Chapter One in frequent flashbacks. But mostly we get their This Is 40 counterparts. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a decent group of actors. Bill Hader and James Ransone get laughs as the older nerd and hypochondriac. James McAvoy does an OK job as the still-stuttering guy. I was impressed with the hair of the grownup Jewish kid. The black dude is totally fine. The chubby kid grows up fit and goatee’d and I did not buy it, or at least the actor didn’t convince me.
Jessica Chastain is a strong likeness for Sophia Lillis, and is certainly a very capable actor. But Chastain just doesn’t emanate that “IT Girl” quality which Lillis’s version has in spades. Granted, some people lose their spark as they age, but the actor needs to tell that story, however subtly, and Chastain doesn’t quite get it done.
There are scares a-plenty, and if you enjoy that sort of thing you will be entertained by this movie. But part one had so much heart, and that is simply not on display here. I do think it’s difficult for adults to convey the same depth of friendship that kids can. Also hurting the film is the fact that as an audience, we weren’t catching up with them 27 years later. For us, it’s only been 2 years. Maybe Muschietti should’ve gone all Linklater or Apted and waited two and a half decades to make the follow-up with the original cast. As is, Chapter Two of IT isn’t sh*t, but it ain’t all that.
Jack Silbert, curator