Shortcut To Happiness

A story about a writer again, this time a fairly good one who realises that success comes at price. In his case, the price he chooses is selling his soul to the Devil.

While he gets the money, women, bestseller lists, Hollywood nod and finally the awards, the tradeoff with the Devil manifests itself in a way you can well imagine: Jabez Stone (Baldwin) has to compromise on his writing to make it more “palatable” and hence more “saleable”. Needless to say he grows more and more miserable in the process.

The ‘Selling Your Soul to the Devil’ is a territory well covered in both film and literature. So Baldwin had to come up with something new to keep us hooked. Instead, this is an overwritten, tortuous exercise working on an old Stephen Vincent Benet. So overwritten in fact — it has been lying in the cans since 2001, and gone through several production houses and even a title change from ‘The Devil and Daniel Webster’ — that Baldwin has disassociated himself from his own directorial debut. (Though that’s a good way to escape the blame.)

Hopkins is the serious publisher — the conscience keeper of writers — and he vainly tries to give the overwrought film some gravitas. A sizzling Hewitt as the Devil does a better job of making it work, particularly as she signs up her victims with deals not signed in blood but other bodily fluids. However, just as we are convinced she is a special creation, they actually put her before a jury with Hopkins as the opponent. Talk about taking the devil out!

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