Stephen King's Thinner

REVIEW
A selfish lawyer accidentally but recklessly runs down the daughter of an ancient gypsy mystic and becomes the object of a sinister curse in this adaptation of a Stephen King story written under his "Richard Bachman" pseudonym. Extremely overweight, the lawyer (Burke) suddenly finds himself losing fat at an alarming rate. Pleased at first, he realizes the horror of his situation when he cannot stop or even slow down his wasting away. He must confront the old gypsy and persuade him to lift the curse. One could overanalyze this scenario, with its moral implications and parallels to drug abuse or AIDS, but it's really just a basic horror film. Competently acted and produced, it's satisfying while it lasts but leaves no lasting impression.