I usually like the book more than the movie version of the book. Shocking and controversial, I know. And that’s not even really what I want to talk about, but I mention it today because in the case of Gone Girl, I didn’t like either the book OR the movie.
I read Gone Girl in 2012, and THAT time, I liked it. It was entertaining, full of twists, engrossing. Then I heard they were making a movie out of it, and I wanted to see the movie, so I made John read it. He didn’t like it as much. It had been a couple of years, so I re-read it.
I did NOT like it the second time. Nick and Amy are entirely unsympathetic, totally horrible people. I forced myself to finish it the second time. (I’m not sure why, actually. Maybe I was hoping it would turn around.) But I still wanted to see the movie. After John read it, he was much less enthusiastic about seeing the movie, so we didn’t get around to it until this past weekend.
The casting was perfect. It was very well acted, and it’s a very good adaptation of the book. And I didn’t like it (neither did John). So…points for consistency? Except for the first time I read it. So there went two and a half hours spent with characters we didn’t like. I mean, we really didn’t like this movie. It left us feeling…bad. Unclean. Not entertained. Just bad.
So John chose the next movie, also an adaptation of a book, but at least this time it was an adaptation of a book we both liked. We both read A Long Way Down recently (since the move to Annapolis), and the movie (also a very good adaptation) was mostly faithful to the book, with good acting and likeable characters. Likeable? Likable? Likable looks like lickable. Anyway, we enjoyed it SO much more than Gone Girl. TONS more. It was a palate cleanser, despite being about four people who don’t like each other (at first) and met accidentally when they all tried to kill themselves.
I have banned myself from choosing movies for a while. John isn’t complaining.
Momma Betty
Felt the same way you did about Gone Girl the movie, but I didn’t like the adaptation. Seemed like it made the male character (Affleck) less twisted than he was in the book. Did like the book because of the crazy twists and suspense but only read it once.
We have The Long Way Down on one of our watchlists but keep veering away from it. Now we’ll watch.
btw, we finished The Wire. What shall we do with ourselves now??
Zannah
I don’t remember him being that much more twisted, but I’m NOT going back to find out.
I’m not saying A Long Way Down is a classic or anything, but we liked it.
And after The Wire…I don’t know. We haven’t found anything like it. We enjoyed The Newsroom, even when we hated it…
Momma Betty
Where can you go after The Wire? I felt the same way after Breaking Bad ended.
Zannah
But then you had The Wire…I’ve heard good things about Burn Notice, I think. And Oz.