I am also a big fan of the book, I didn't even know that a movie was made until I stumbled across it at the video store, coincidentally when I happened to be re-reading the book. Although I did notice when an event in the movie did not line up perfectly, it really didn't bother me that much, such as Brinker telling Gene that Phineas wanted to see him, and also telling him that he had a phone call, instead of it being Mr. Ludsbury. That's one less character to cast, and it doesn't affect the story significantly. I believe they stayed true to the underlying interpersonal themes of the book. In order to get the entire scope of Gene's inner self, it would have had to become over-narrated, his voice telling the viewer what he was thinking constantly. Here I guess it's better to have read the book, because just watching the movie without reading it, it would be much harder to pick up all of the workings of Gene's mind and heart. To me, seeing it portrayed on-screen accentuated the emotion and personalities of the characters in a positive way--Phineas' energy, Leper's peculiarity, Brinker's always-in-charge demeanor,Gene's inner self masked by his outward demeanor, which flashed unexpectedly at times. I think that Gene was casted and played brilliantly, outwardly soft-spoken and innocent, inwardly driven and insecure, allowing the viewer to see what he was capable of doing deep inside, and then to some degree seeing his guilt and shock of realizing what he had done to Phineas. (I don't think his accent was overdone either, it even helped to promote his country boy 'innocence'.) And I could go on about more details. All in all, I did like the movie, although it did take a little (and sometimes a lot) of liberty with the original book, and admittedly it didn't carry out all the underlying themes of the book. But as far as portraying the relational and interpersonal themes, between the central characters of the book, and in the portrayal of those characters, I believe it did a good job. To me it didn't ruin the book at all, I think it will make reading it better.
Review of A Separate Peace
