I came across it while channel surfing. I'm not sure why I stopped, but I was quickly hooked. How is it that a movie like this gets almost no publicity? I've never even heard of the book. I missed the first 30 minutes of it. I put it in my Netflix queue so I can catch what I missed.
I first heard of the book, in seventh grade (1995), it was headlined in those scholastic leaflets they pass around in school, sorry don't know your age?, but it is a book geared toward pre-teens, and the movie recieved little publicity, the movie stays fairly honest to the book, and it is a fun quick read. Movies, Books, and Music of very high caliber don't tend to get much publicity sometimes, based on the marketablity of the product. How do you think britney spears has managed to sell even one album ? , when her music is of the lowest quality imaginable.
I was an old geezer long past sparing the time to read children's books that I didn't know and recognize to be "classics" by the time the book was published. When the movie was released I read a review, and I figured I'd take my son (he must have been eight or so) to see it. I can only assume it didn't do well at the box office because some of the themes of domestic violence and the death of a major, sympathetic character was disturbing to some children. Not to mention the theater full of surreptitiously crying adults who must have had something in their eyes...
There is an excellent web site, search for "The Mighty Fan Page." that explains a lot about the poor showing of the film in the theaters. Miramax just didn't know how to market the film well. Changing the title from the book means that kids who read the book didn't connect to the movie. All the ads (look at the DVD cover) show the adult actors, no mention of the kids. What middle school student is going to go to a film featuring Sharon Stone, Gena Rowlands, and Harry Dean Stanton? When you look at how "Hoot" and "Holes" were marketed, you wonder how well this film could have done with similar marketing. I show this to my 7th grade class every year, they really enjoy it.
I agree. I hate it when they don't feature the main actors on the front cover because they're not well known. So, they just slap on Sharon Stone because people know her.