Having read the novel and found pleasure in that I was anxious to see how it would unfold as a movie. And yes, whenever you fall for the story as a novel, you often have difficult in accepting the choices that comes when cutting in the material to realise the same story in a matter of 2 hours for the screen. Sometimes it can be a good experience, but unfortunately this is not a succesful realisation.
The casting is one of the more succesful aspects in the adaptation, and the flashbacks basically works rather fine. Less succesful is the plot of the story. The novel deals with existentialism and it's a major theme throughout the novel, where the various characters' perspectives comes in play, but here it's reduced to a simplification that does unjust to the novel and also makes it difficult to stay involved. And then a central episode is uncovered early during the film, whereas it's kept as a nice climax in the novel. The characters are portayed as shallow and flat, and despite an obvious attempt to stay true to the narration of the novel, it works as an amateurish draft for an actual movie. The story is there, so why not utilise the depth of a fine screenplay?! Instead of making a movie about adults, their relationship and the power of essential emotions, this movie comes out as a superficial view on dynamics between innocent teenagers.
Not really recommended.
The casting is one of the more succesful aspects in the adaptation, and the flashbacks basically works rather fine. Less succesful is the plot of the story. The novel deals with existentialism and it's a major theme throughout the novel, where the various characters' perspectives comes in play, but here it's reduced to a simplification that does unjust to the novel and also makes it difficult to stay involved. And then a central episode is uncovered early during the film, whereas it's kept as a nice climax in the novel. The characters are portayed as shallow and flat, and despite an obvious attempt to stay true to the narration of the novel, it works as an amateurish draft for an actual movie. The story is there, so why not utilise the depth of a fine screenplay?! Instead of making a movie about adults, their relationship and the power of essential emotions, this movie comes out as a superficial view on dynamics between innocent teenagers.
Not really recommended.