Bingo Square: The Book Was Better
While I never became a huge Nick Hornby fan, I have enjoyed a few of his novels and adaptations of his novels (I quite like the ABC show About a Boy with Minnie Driver – between that show and Speechless, Minnie Driver has found her niche as overprotective sitcom mother, and I love it). But he’s never been a go to author for me, so I tend to read his stuff after I realize another piece is being adapted. I saw previews for Juliet, Naked a few weeks before the movie release and thought it looked like a potentially cute rom-com with charming actors. When I am that close to a release date, I usually opt to watch the movie first since if the details of the novel are too fresh, I will compare too much, usually in favor of the novel. Instead I prefer to have months between the book and the movie, allowing anything beyond the basic plot to blur, or to watch the movie first and then discover extra tidbits while reading.
To be honest, while I liked the performances in the movie, I left the movie a bit unsure of how I felt. I wanted a cute movie where people reevaluate their lives and find fresh beginnings. The trailer, however, was quite deceiving because it left’s Hawke’s character such a cipher. It was not a light breezy rom-com; instead it was a bit melancholy and messy. As I quickly discovered in the movie, Tucker Crowe is no one’s idea of a romantic hero. He disappeared from the music scene years ago and has been without direction; that part wasn’t a surprise. The part that makes him very lackluster in the romantic interest department, however, is that he is also a deadbeat dad with five children from four different mothers. He has only been involved in raising his youngest son.
Despite this, there is something charming about the character that leave the reader wanting to root for the character to get it together. Hornby writes him in a sympathetic and mostly self aware manner while the movie has the advantage of Ethan Hawke for the character. Rose Byrne also added much humanity to Annie’s role – in the novel, she occasionally came across as shrill. While the movie was messy, in some ways the book felt even more so – being even more in the characters’ heads, the reader feels every cringe worthy moment even more so.
Overall, I thought some of the changes the movie made did not make much sense at all – there was a twist involving his oldest daughter in both vehicles, but the one in the movie made much less sense as a secret due to the existence of the internet; Annie’s coworker becomes her relationship-drama attracting sister. While these changes didn’t seem to have much reason, overall I would say I enjoyed the movie slightly more because the ending felt less ambiguous and took the reader forward further in time, allowing for a subdued happy ending. The book is up to interpretation but I’m sorry, I want happy without question in a rom-com. Maybe this wasn’t supposed to be a rom-com but that’s something the movie marketing department will need to be held responsible for.
Bingo Square: The Book Was Better