Public Service Announcement

[ladysprite]

If you have ever read 'The Time Traveler's Wife' and enjoyed it, please, for the love of all you hold holy, do NOT go see the movie.

If you have not read the book, and are thinking about going to see the movie, please drive past the theater to your local bookstore and pick up a copy of the book instead. It'll cost less, last longer, and will have the added advantage of not being screamingly awful.

If you *have* read the book, and thought perhaps that it was too serious, had too much plot and character development, and wasn't sweet or heartwarming enough, by all means go see the movie. It was clearly made for you.

I should have known better than to get my hopes up. This was not a book that was ever made to transition to the big screen, and it was clear from the trailers that the parts they chose to keep were not the parts that mattered most to me. Still, I had kind of daydreamed about it at least catching some of the feel of the story, which it utterly failed to do, at least for me.

The worst part is.... it didn't utterly suck. It's not a categorically bad movie - it's just incredibly weak. A halfhearted plot, weak characterization, and enough painted-on sappy romance and Hollywood ending to make it feel like being force-fed a solid brick of artificial sweetener. If it were truly and unmitigatedly awful I could get a decent head of righteous ire going. As it is, I just feel deeply let down.

Please, whoever's listening, don't let 'Julie and Julia' suck. I need a good movie....

Comments

[pujaemuss.livejournal.com]

I'd already decided to steer well clear. The reason the book is so brilliant is that it makes you care very very deeply about the characters and I couldn't see a film translating that well. The actual time-travelling and the roundabout plot are more cinematically-friendly than the characters and their emotions.

Plus, I've never met a book that I've loved that made a decent film. The only films which I would say are equal or better than the book were Lord of the Rings and High Fidelity and in both cases I wasn't crazy about the books.

I've resolved never to go watch a film based on a book I love again. In the past few years, it's saved me from the horrible Americanisations of PS. I Love You, Yes Man, and Marley & Me, although not from The HitchHiker's Guide To The Galaxy, which I was stupid enough to break my rule for.

PJW

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

I'm usually pretty open-minded about movie interpretations of books that I love - I understand that what makes a good book and what makes a good movie may be entirely different things, and I can accept that, and there have been some good ones. The Princess Bride. The Last Unicorn. Gone With the Wind. The Green Mile. Watchmen. The Prestige, though I admit I saw the movie first and later read the book for that one.

This just... didn't do the story justice, in my opinion. And yeah, they tweaked the ending just enough to really cheese me off....

[aerynne.livejournal.com]

Except that they took out all the roundaboutness of the plot--and people are still complaining that it's too confusing.