Did anyone else find this miniseries really bad?

I just watched the mini-series last night, and HBO has made such greats as Six Feet Under and Band of Brothers. But after thinking about it, Empire Falls is bad film that appears on top to be good. It appears good because of the good preformances from well-established actors and some of the film's interactions.

However, I agree with the previous poster (dan-richards) that other parts were terrible. The narrator was unneeded, annoying, and had a weird tone to his narration that made no sense. The film's ideas are handled in such a corny and cheesy fashion. FOR EXAMPLE, without giving spoilers, everytime characters would have an arguement it would be about issues they had already lived through for a while. They wouldn't suddenly just be discussing these things just then. And to add the dialogue is so contrived and forcefed to alert the audience to troubles in their lives.

I could go on and on about this. Trivial and cliche subplots, cheesy music, character motovations I question (look toward the ending in which the trouble Jon Voss character attempts something I will not reveal), this script is just a bucket.

I generally find movies made from books I've read to be bland - a dry re-telling of events I know about. And that could be precisely and for no other reason than because I do know about it.

Only thing I noticed about the music was how little there was. What was there I didn't find cheesy. Actually wished there was more. Without it, again, a dryness.

You know me. I'm just like you. It's two in the morning and I don't know nobody.

I think even less of it than you do.

In addition to the "bad TV show" atmosphere, and the horrible directing, I also thought the music was dreadful, and the acting throughout was again like a broadcast sitcom "special episode". I'm shocked this gets a rating over 6 on IMDb.

As for the plot, I think it's OK regarding complexity, but as a miniseries, they could have had two 2-hour episodes, or three 90-minute episodes, to flesh these things out properly. As it is, it felt like too much time was wasted on long thoughtful stares, and not enough on the plot or characters.

But my other opinion on the plot is that it was just cheesy. I think it was SO bad, that the only reason the John Voss character was even in there was to get audiences to self-justify their reason for watching it, by turning it from a dull, pointless story, into a Movie-Of-The-Week. After all, Several People Died, so it must be Important. But even that is promptly ignored, and we return to dullsville for an ending about nothing.

I also didn't like the miniseries format, because a three-hour film certainly doesn't need to be broken down into smaller parts unless there's something seriously wrong with it. Maybe it would have been a better experience for me if Part One and Part Two were broadcast as a single film, or on consecutive nights, rather than a week apart. Maybe not.

Bottom line: I'm glad it's over and I can forget about it. 6/10.

I've got about 25 pages left in the book, which I have thoroughly enjoyed thus far. I am anxious to watch the miniseries beacause of the notably cast. However, after reading these comments I may forgo watching the miniseries so I don't sully the nice taste I have garnered from the Book. I have some ambivilance to work out.

It wasn't that bad.

I'm watching now and it's a bit slow moving. But I'll continue to watch it. I have to put the second disc in.

It was really awful. I was pretty disappointed, given how much I loved the book. Maybe someone will make a good movie version someday.

Some points that I would like to make that don't seem to be discussed in the other threads (from other people thinking this was bad). Maybe somebody who has read the book could clarify these issues?

(spoiler warning)

1) Miles Roby seems to not really do much of anything (other than get in a fight with Minty, quitting his job, or fantasizing about getting a book store). It seems that things happen to him, rather than things happen because of him. There is no arc or event that significantly changes his life (except maybe he is a little smarter about who he is maybe). In the beginning, he is a restaurant owner who has a boss that manipulates him. At the end of the story, he is still a restaurant owner with his boss being the mother of his former wife.

To further emphasize the above point, let's say that being a restaurant owner with the boss being the mother of his former wife is vastly better than it being Francine Whiting. Still the problem is, this doesn't happen because of anything that Miles Roby really does (other than quitting). Francine Whiting is conveniently killed off in some flooding accident that Mile Roby merely hears about.

2) Why was Miles Roby's fight with Minty really necessary? All he wanted to do was tell Francine that he is quitting. I guess it's a set up for him saying, "How does it feel Francine, to know your husband shot himself in the head rather than spend one more minute on this Earth with you?", but still. People don't normally need to get into a fist fight in order to quit a job. The writer of the story should have chosen some other way of showing that Francine was so bad that her husband killed himself.

3) Other threads have pointed out the school shooting with John Voss. I agree that the school shooting doesn't really do much for the main plot. It's basically a side plot that is kind of forgotten about by the end of the movie. It's only purpose seems to be to give an impetus for Miles to go on an introspective vacation with Tick. Again, back to point 1, he goes on this vacation because of something done to him (John Voss hurting his daughter) rather than something he does himself.

4) The "river of life" is really kind of cliche, but I don't think it's done too terribly either way (not terribly good or bad). If I can use a "river of life" analogy as to why this story is weak though, it's like seeing a leaf on top of a stick floating down the river. The leaf+stick then go through a little bit of turbulence which causes the leaf to be separated from the stick. Then the leaf continues floating on down the river with the stick being stuck on the bank. Where the leaf is going isn't any more exciting at the beginning, or after the incident. The only difference is, it's going there without the annoying stick.

I do like some of the dialog in the movie and some of the points it makes about human nature (i.e. that you should acknowledge that you will love who you love and not who your intellectual mind would say you should love). Because the movie has moments like this, I would say it's average, but doesn't deserve the high praise it gets.