I just found out about this short today and just finished watching it a second time. I gotta say, I didn't think it was all that great. The Tobias Wolff story is one of my favorites but I don't think it really works as a film. I thought they did a good job with the first part where Anders is speaking to his students, which wasn't in the story, but I wasn't impressed with the execution of the bank robbery and the flashback. I'm pretty sure the narrative was all taken from the text word for word (with a number of omissions) and I have no problem with that because it's an awesome narrative. However, I really didn't like the narrator's voice and I thought the guy who played the bank robber totally sucked. I don't get why they didn't stay true to the story's description of the robbers. I thought Tom Noonan played Anders really well though. He kind of reminds me of a budget version of John Malkovich. I can't quite understand why people think so highly of this short. I'm assuming it's because the story's so damned good. I think they could have done a much better job with the film adaptation. The cinematography was pretty ordinary, the lighting was uninspired, and the music was weak.
As for Anders' "epiphany", I agree that he certainly appears to have some kind of revelation, I just don't get why. The reason he started laughing in the book was because there was a ridiculously cheesy painting on the ceiling. I thought that little touch of mystery and ambiguity was unnecessay. I also thought it was strange the way they just had Anders act like such a jerk to that woman for no reason at all. With the exception of the beginning which was very original and in keeping with the spirit of the story, it seemed like they weren't even trying when they made this. I give it a 6. I'd be curious to hear Wolff's oppinion.
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