I've tried three times to watch this movie. I have not been able to finish it. From the very start, the story is changed so much from the book that I cannot believe the author (Dean Koontz) had anything to do with it. Unfortunately he's credited with writing the screenplay.The main character, Jenny, has a younger sister. Lisa is a very young, very scared 14 year old in the book. In the movie, she looks like a very grown up and sexually active 17 year old. That changes a good bit of the plot right there.
To make matters worse, Frank Autry (one of the best secondary characters in the book) is just not in the movie at all. Add that to the fact that they chose Ben Affleck to play the sheriff and all expectations go down the drain. I love Ben Affleck, but he is NOT the right actor for the character portrayed in the book. Instead of coming across as a very haunted and strong person, he comes across as a really obnoxious action hero. I'll be nice and give this a half of a star since some of what I watched was scary.
Oh, dear! We hear so many stories from authors whose books were messed up by others in film versions - the usual response is a face-palming "Never again!" This one has no such excuse, although to be fair, he probably had no say in the casting and was briefed about how they wanted it. And then there are the "script doctors" who fix scripts - did you know Carrie Fisher did very nicely as a script doctor when she was not acting? They don't get credits.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the author is not the best person to write the script, as Kirk Douglas said in his memoir about Howard Fast, who wrote the original script for Spartacus. He hired Dalton Trumbo, the blacklisted screenplay writer, instead, and the result was a classic.
Whoops, forgot my link!
ReplyDeleteJust Been To See...Carmen