wow wtf !


they ruined this, its not even as good as the book. alex is the opposite of who he really is and johnathon isnt the same either. i hate when this happens. this movie took out all the little beautiful details that made this book what it is.

reply

I have to agree... I loved the book, but the movie was a dissappointment. Had I not read the book, I might have enjoyed it, though. I feel like it's relatively impossible to make an adaptation that lives up to the book. I mean, Alex was amazing in the book, but what was with the hip-hop crap in the film? Also, I fell in love with Brod and the rest of the members of the village, so it was a disappointing to not see them.

reply

yea it has its possibility of being a good movie despite its roots from the book. And yea I was really disappointed in not seeing the alternative storyline in the movie. That whole story was so beautiful that I was surprised they didn't even mention anything of it in the movie. But its true, i've never seen a movie that lived up to its adapted book. I don't know if you've ever read it but theyre adapting The Perks Of Being a Wallflower- the most beautiful book I've ever read- and I'm honestly afraid of what the movie could turn out to be D=

reply

Having never read the book, I really enjoyed the movie. But I'm sure that if I get around to reading the book, my opinion of the movie will drop a bit. But, if one isn't comparing to the book, it's a pretty good movie.

reply

Liev never intended to make "the book", when you look at it it's really a road movie, and it's a damn good one. The balance between humor and tragedy is perfect, and the acting is top notch.

formerly the IMDB user AnneFrankensteinn and obviouslyfake

reply

Liev never intended to make "the book", when you look at it it's really a road movie, and it's a damn good one. The balance between humor and tragedy is perfect, and the acting is top notch.

formerly the IMDB user AnneFrankensteinn and obviouslyfake

reply

I never read the book and this is one of my favorite movies ever. I have considered reading the book (I think I'd love it) but don't want to spoil the movie experience. But I doubt I'll ever prefer the book to the film since I saw the movie first.

reply

you'll prefer the book to the film, I promise.. :-D

reply

See and I am the complete opposite. I saw the movie first and loved it. I then decided to read the book and could not get into it. I found it hard to follow and confusing and not even remotely close to being as likable as the movie.

as for movies that follow close to books,
-The Pianist (There were parts in the movie that depicted the book to a T.)

reply

[deleted]

I love both. Books and films are not the same medium. You can really only translate so much. I would say that Alex and Jonathan in book versus film are really quite similar. I think they made Jonathan's character a bit more toned down and they did change him into a "collector," but other than that, there's not too much different. I didn't notice any differences in Alex's character. Most of the dialogue in the film is taken straight from the novel.

this movie took out all the little beautiful details that made this book what it is.

Books and films are two different mediums. You can get a lot more out of a book because it is not bound to visuals or a two-hour time frame. Foer's writing about Brod and Yankel and that whole history was some beautiful writing, but if you think about the visuals of that - it would be very surreal. A naked homeless man tied up in string? How do you explain that visual in the film format? Excessive narration? By whom? The history of Trachimbrod provided by the book is very detailed and so long that it could be made into its own film. There are a lot in the letters written by Alex to Jonathan, but that would be cumbersome for a film. Would you film those scenes and have Alex narrate them? Would you show Alex writing them? What?

The filmmakers took this excellent book and transformed it into a very beautiful film, choosing to utilize the current-day story of the quest and leaving out the complicated story of Trachimbrod's history (but they did allude to it, I thought - the grandfather finds a broken wagon in a ditch which looks like it could have once been a river) to condense the story into a filmable length.

Also, as a side note, I hope this didn't come off as rude. I didn't mean to offend, I just mean to say that of course books are more detailed! They can be as long as the author wants them to be!

reply

very eloqent post crazy89!

An explanation that can be applied to all book to film films

"Mr. Nice" for instance - there is so much left out - but it had to be.

reply