While I respect the intent of the author of the book this movie was made from, which was to invent another explanation for the manner in which a tragic event unfolded, and while the movie itself was aesthetically pleasing in many respects, I find it disturbing that key facts which were crucial to the outcome were changed for no apparent reason, or for reasons of convenience.
I'm speaking of the absence of one of the main characters, and the ultimate substitution of that character's loss with that of another, whose survival in the book was, I believe, critical to the resolution. Also, the dating of the writing of the document which tells the alternative story of the historical facts as they're recorded to have occurred on the Isles of Shoals in the late 19th century, and its being not only made known to the authorities, but actually dictated to them, and yet suppressed, is ludicrous and a fabrication of the adaptation.
In reading the book I had a very difficult time imagining the terrain and space in which those events occurred, and hoped that, like some other film adaptations, the movie would fill in the spaces in my imagination and complete the story in a physical way. And indeed I did get a better sense of the look and feel of the place and the people. But because of these essential differences in the storyline, I cannot recommend the movie as a companion to the book. It is not true enough to its source material. There are some times when an adapter should leave well enough alone and not tinker with the original story, but portray it as it occurs.
I feel that Kathryn Bigelow did not do a service to Anita Shreve, whose working out of her plot was careful and thoughtful and just plausible enough to give doubt to the historical record...given the set of circumstances which she invented. (One must take the story in its fictional context in order to believe it; therefore though the premise is interesting, in the absence of the document that the alternative history is based on, we must rely on the conviction of the court in the case of the Isles of Shoals murders.) So although the film had many good points from the standpoint of execution, it failed in that it did not truthfully portray the events of the book.
I'm speaking of the absence of one of the main characters, and the ultimate substitution of that character's loss with that of another, whose survival in the book was, I believe, critical to the resolution. Also, the dating of the writing of the document which tells the alternative story of the historical facts as they're recorded to have occurred on the Isles of Shoals in the late 19th century, and its being not only made known to the authorities, but actually dictated to them, and yet suppressed, is ludicrous and a fabrication of the adaptation.
In reading the book I had a very difficult time imagining the terrain and space in which those events occurred, and hoped that, like some other film adaptations, the movie would fill in the spaces in my imagination and complete the story in a physical way. And indeed I did get a better sense of the look and feel of the place and the people. But because of these essential differences in the storyline, I cannot recommend the movie as a companion to the book. It is not true enough to its source material. There are some times when an adapter should leave well enough alone and not tinker with the original story, but portray it as it occurs.
I feel that Kathryn Bigelow did not do a service to Anita Shreve, whose working out of her plot was careful and thoughtful and just plausible enough to give doubt to the historical record...given the set of circumstances which she invented. (One must take the story in its fictional context in order to believe it; therefore though the premise is interesting, in the absence of the document that the alternative history is based on, we must rely on the conviction of the court in the case of the Isles of Shoals murders.) So although the film had many good points from the standpoint of execution, it failed in that it did not truthfully portray the events of the book.