I don't really like the idea of comparing the book to the movie, but in this case I find it inevitable. I read the book and loved it, but the movie just doesn't have the same skill....
For one thing, the movie really downplayed the oddity of the everything that went on, which was really what made the memoir so detail-oriented and real, I think. But the people who made the movie just didn't have the same skill with *their* craft....
For one thing, it was a little off to cast an actor like Alec Baldwin to be the father, who had such a minimal role, really. It also seemed at times like too much emphasis was placed on the mother-- in film I suppose it's easier to place emphasis on an adult, rather than a child (a child actor), but the whole thing was supposed to be about Augusten....
I really think they should have considered using voiceovers/narration by Augusten to give some depth to his point-of-view, giving something to his own narrations and insights like in the book, rather than just showing him on the edge of the scene....
Without that deep feel for the characters idiosyncrasies and the individuality of the memoirist, it's just.... boring.
They just show flatly this one doing this and that one doing that, but there's just no real appreciation for how crazy it all was.
.... It sounds stupid and obvious to say that it should have been more like the book, but it really should have been.
(7/10)
For one thing, the movie really downplayed the oddity of the everything that went on, which was really what made the memoir so detail-oriented and real, I think. But the people who made the movie just didn't have the same skill with *their* craft....
For one thing, it was a little off to cast an actor like Alec Baldwin to be the father, who had such a minimal role, really. It also seemed at times like too much emphasis was placed on the mother-- in film I suppose it's easier to place emphasis on an adult, rather than a child (a child actor), but the whole thing was supposed to be about Augusten....
I really think they should have considered using voiceovers/narration by Augusten to give some depth to his point-of-view, giving something to his own narrations and insights like in the book, rather than just showing him on the edge of the scene....
Without that deep feel for the characters idiosyncrasies and the individuality of the memoirist, it's just.... boring.
They just show flatly this one doing this and that one doing that, but there's just no real appreciation for how crazy it all was.
.... It sounds stupid and obvious to say that it should have been more like the book, but it really should have been.
(7/10)