Thinner (film)

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Thinner
Directed by	Tom Holland
Produced by	Mitchell Galin Richard P. Rubinstein
Written by	Stephen King (novel) Michael McDowell and Tom Holland (screenplay)
Starring	Robert John Burke Joe Mantegna Lucinda Jenney Bethany Joy Lenz Michael Constantine Kari Wührer
Music by	Daniel Licht
Cinematography	Kees Van Oostrum
Editing by	Marc Laub
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures (US theatrical) Lions Gate Entertainment (current US video distributor)
Release date(s)	October 25, 1996 (USA)
Running time	92 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$14,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue	$15,171,475 (USA)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Thinner is a 1996 horror film directed by Tom Holland and written by Stephen King (novel), Michael McDowell and Tom Holland (screenplay).

1 Cast
2 Plot
3 Trivia
4 External links

[edit] Cast

Robert John Burke — Billy Halleck
Joe Mantegna — Richie Ginelli
Lucinda Jenney — Heidi Halleck
Michael Constantine — Tadzu Lempke
Kari Wührer — Gina Lempke
Bethany Joy Lenz — Linda Halleck
Time Winters — Prosecutor
Howard Erskine — Judge Phillips
Terrence Garmey — Bailiff
Randy Jurgensen — Court Clerk
Jeff Ware — Max Duggenfield
Antonette Schwartzberg — Mama Ginelli
Terence Kava — Gabe Lempke
Adriana Delphine — Gypsy Woman
Ruth Miller — Billy's Secretary

[edit] Plot

Billy Halleck is an arrogant obese upper-class lawyer who lives in suburban Connecticut. One day while driving, he accidentally runs over an old Gypsy woman with his car when his wife distracts him by giving him oral sex. The Gypsy woman's father, Tadzu Lempke, who is 106 years old, curses Billy by touching him and saying, "Thinner." The curse causes Billy to lose weight rapidly, regardless of how much he eats.

Now Billy must persuade the ancient Gypsy to lift the curse with the help of his friend, an underworld crime boss by the name of Richie "The Hammer" Ginelli. It's a desperate race for survival; time is running out for Billy as he becomes even thinner, and draws closer to his own death.

Ultimately Lempke is persuaded to alter the curse. However he explains that he cannot remove it but only transfer it, and does so to a pie. The curse is transferred such that anyone who consumes it will die a horribly painful death. Lempke begs him to end the curse and die with dignity, by eating his own pie. Wanting revenge on his wife for supposedly cheating on him, Billy leaves the pie out for her to eat. The next morning he wakes up to find his dead wife next to him in bed. After going downstairs gleefully, he finds that his daughter has also eaten a slice, much to his horror. Feeling guilty about the whole ordeal, he decides to have one as well. Before he can take the first bite, he's interrupted by a ring of the doorbell. At the door is the man he believes his wife had the affair with; he invites the man in for a piece of pie, and the movie cuts out.

[edit] Trivia

Stephen King appears as the pharmacist Dr. Bangor, who lives in Bangor, Maine.
The gypsy family name also appears as Lemke in some Portuguese versions of the story.
In Adam Sandler's movie Mr. Deeds, the main character, Longfellow Deeds, recounts how Stephen King visited his hometown. Deeds claims that King looked at the gas station attendant and the next day he lost over 200 pounds, a likely reference to Thinner.