8/2/10

Small rant: Movies vs Books

Rant time.

So I'm way behind on my movies as I usually am because we just do not go to the theatre ever. We Netflix and even with that it is hard to keep current sometimes. This weekend I finally got around to seeing My Sisters Keeper which came out LAST summer.

Now, I have read the book and I love the book. I love Jodi Picoult as an author and the twists and turns she puts in her books that you just don't see coming. And I won't give out spoilers for either the book or the movie as I complain for a moment here. But I was disappointed in the movie.

Now, I know, most times the movie never holds a candle to the book. Honestly, I think I've seen only a handful of movies that have translated well to the big screen from a book. And I can respect a director's or a writer's choice to make some changes to a screenplay to make it work better as a movie or to put their own personal spin on it or whatever. My complaint is this.

My Sister's Keeper the book has what I think is a huge and significant twist at the end. Like, you just get slammed by it but it is almost somewhat satisfying. My Sister's Keeper the movie chose to totally ignore Jodi Picoult's ending. Everything else in the movie up to that point felt like it worked fine and then this...it just didn't feel right to me. And that made me angry because I actually enjoyed the movie right up to that point and was bracing myself for what I was sure was coming and then bam. It didn't.

Maybe I'm just being way too nitpicky about it - but I just feel it was almost an insult to Jodi Picoult. But I know she put a stamp of approval on it so I really should just let it go!

Rant over.

3 comments:

Gina said...

Oh, I wonder what happens. I haven't seen the movie yet. I'm actually getting it from Netflix tomorrow so I will be watching it this week. But I totally understand what you mean about movies not following how the book is written.

Julie said...

I've seen the movie but will probably never read the book. Do you mind emailing me what the differences are.

I totally agree with you about the transitions between books and movies.
I believe one of my first posts was a rant about the same thing.

Mrs. Schrader said...

I so agree with your rant, the movie just wasn't satisfying because of the ending.