Dramas walk a thin line these days, especially ones based on best-loved books. I haven't read the book, but I can say that the film did nothing to endear me to Frank's troubles the way the book appears to have for its readers.
The photography and the performances were fine, if overwrought, but that's part of the balancing act of drama. Too much in any one direction and it becomes melodrama, farce or, as in this case, generic. Despite being based upon a book which seems to contain a lot of heart, the film is closer to a dispassionate documentary than it is a first-person account of someone we can identify with and care about. Without that, it just becomes "yet another story."
The photography and the performances were fine, if overwrought, but that's part of the balancing act of drama. Too much in any one direction and it becomes melodrama, farce or, as in this case, generic. Despite being based upon a book which seems to contain a lot of heart, the film is closer to a dispassionate documentary than it is a first-person account of someone we can identify with and care about. Without that, it just becomes "yet another story."