The Book was a COMING OUT STORY, the movie is a disaster. STAY AWAY.

I totally agree, I watched this last night. Though I did watch the Novel to film featurette on the DVD. And Chabon did approve of the script and actually liked the movie. *shudders*

And it's too bad, because Chabon's Wonder Boys is one of my favorite book to movie adaptations ever!

When I heard the movie was out, I immediately went to IMDB to figure out who was the cast. I'd heard Peter Saarsgard was in it, and I was happy b/c I figured he'd be playing Art, and he'd be a good choice for that character. Well I saw he was playing Cleveland. Didn't see it.

I looked for who was playing Arthur, one of the best characters in the book. I couldn't find him. Turns out they cut him from the film version.

I'm only 20 minutes into the movie right now, and I'm already very disappointed. Jon Foster's voice over is so monotone that it's distracting from the actual script.

I read the reviews on Netflix and IMDB and it doesn't seem appealing at all. Yet the book was so wonderfully written and I was very much looking forward to the movie. This is just bad, but I'll stick it out.

Why would Cleveland and Art have an affair? That makes no sense b/c Cleveland is the complete antithesis of Art in the book, someone who secured Art's masculinity while it was nearly out of his reach with Arthur. I already dont like that htey've changed Cleveland's character into a bisexual biker.

The direction is already pretty bad too. In the first punk rock scene, they lower the music so much during the dialogue, like it's playing softly on the radio. Nothing really seems believeable at all so far.

Just 20 minutes in, I'm already disappointed greatly.

"Wonderboys" is one of my favorite books of all time, and the movie solidified that for me b/c they stayed on target with the plotline and the actors were very believable in their roles. Curtis Hanson, it seems, should've done the "Mysteries of Pittsburgh" as well...

"You're a furry little gnome and we feed you too much!"

This is a dreadful, terrible movie. I think you are being too hard on Jon Foster. What chance does he have with this awful script and direction? Now Nick Nolte I would say is bad in this film ,very bad, and miscast as well. We know he can do better, although I think he's overrated.

I do agree with others who say this one is BAD, BAD, BAD... stay away

In total agreement with the OP. I read Chabon's book years ago and found it an interesting & endearing coming-of-age/coming out story. When Blockbuster had their store closing sale, I picked up this DVD for $8, reasoning the basic story is good, how bad of an adaption can it be?. Well, I found out. Yes it's that bad. I just wish I could get my money back. It isn't even worth a 2nd viewing---maybe I can unload it at a garage sale for $1.

In addition to completely altering the premise, theme, and characters of the story (is there anything else to change?), the acting was bad, direction bad, and continuity poor as well. Add to that there is absolutely zero sexual chemistry between any of the actors/characters, which is kind of the whole point of a sexual awakening coming of age story. This is the first time I've seen Sarsgaard in a film. The stills from other films reveal he can be a nice looking guy, however he looked & acted like sh** in this film, and the whole idea that the protagonist would be sexually attracted to him in any way was totally unbelievable.

Lesson learned: read IMDB message boards & reviews before purchasing any film!

WOW! That's interesting that Art's love interest was supposed to be Cleveland's friend and that Jane wasn't supposed to be a major character. In any case, I loved Peter Sarsgard's acting, as always.


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The movie is indeed disappointing, but it's not the first time that Hollywood has merged two characters together (in this case, Art Lecomte and Cleveland) for brevity's sake.

Also, I don't know how long it's been since you've read the novel, but the fact of Art Bechstein's father being a gangster is directly referenced in the book, from the very first sentence. And while he is a minor character, he has an integral role in the plot, being indirectly responsible for Cleveland's fate.

But I agree: if you were a fan of the book (and I used to be. To my mind, it's flaws and self-conscious style that are common to a first work attracted more of my attention than it did 20 years ago), then this film can only be a severe let down.

I didn't like what they did to Phlox's character either. As histrionic as she could be, she was more nuanced than the film allowed.

I wouldn't call the book a "coming out" story. Not everything involving a gay romance (or in this case, more of a fling) is automatically a coming out story. That said, if you detach yourself from any expectations and try to forget the book for a minute, it's really not a bad movie. Although I hated Peter Sarsgaard in it. If I hadn't read the book I probably wouldn't have minded, but man, was he off from how I imagined Cleveland. Anyways, that's all. I liked Jon Foster. I thought he had that awkwardly formal way about him as he seemed to have in the book.

It did piss me off though that this is NOT pittsburgh or anything like it. having spent my whole life here, I would've liked to recognize something. At least in the book they mentioned the university and hillman library. In this, they were like "Hey let's put everything on Forbes Ave and it'll work!" Incorrect.

THIS MOVIE IS HORRIFIC. Yeah, it is NOTHING like the book. I didn't even want to read the book after seeing the movie, but then I heard great things about the book so I picked it up. thank god I did. I can't even understand how they can call it the same thing. It reminds me of when SIMON BIRCH was made out of A prayer for owen meany and John Irving just said, "No, *beep* no, take my name off that crap." Ha ha. Too bad Chabon couldn't have done that here.