Great chemistry, if you can believe it, between Newman and Tandy. (Not romantic.) But that's about it. Maybe I'm not the first to gripe that a 550-page book can't be turned into a 2-hour movie with everything intact. Notably, the female characters, who in the book are richly developed and major players, are nearly invisible here. (Even Tandy, playing the retired 8th-grade teacher who knows a little bit about everybody in town, is superficial -- reduced to the stereotypical wise old lady.) No mention of the Newman character's girlfriend; so little mention of his wife that her role isn't even credited. No Mrs. Gruber, sallying forth. No Rub's wife, who shoplifted enough from Woolworth to decorate an entire home. No Joyce, girlfriend of The Bank (Tandy's son). Hattie's funeral comes out of nowhere in the movie (it must baffle anyone who hasn't read the book).
Not to be a snob. On the contrary -- I almost never read novels, and never-ever read them just before seeing the movie. So perhaps this is a ho-hum complaint that wiser people have learned to deal with.
Not to be a snob. On the contrary -- I almost never read novels, and never-ever read them just before seeing the movie. So perhaps this is a ho-hum complaint that wiser people have learned to deal with.