I read the book when it first came out and loved it - it is one of my all-time favorites. This makes waiting for the movie version particularly nerve-wracking. A film adaptation of a favorite book (widely thought to be unfilmable)?
The more I read about this the more worried I get. It seems like they’re missing all the subtleties of the book, and ramping up the action. I’m worried that if people just see the movie and it sucks, they’ll stay away from the book, which is really worth reading; a masterpiece of style.
From what I’ve read, the movie is very different from the book in structure. Instead of nested stories, it uses rapid cuts between the individual stories.
To my mind this is a good sign. A movie could never faithfully represent the very literary aspects of the book - it has to use the strengths of its own medium.
I’m not too fussed by the negative reviews - I would be if they were universally negative, but they are not; the majority so far are positive and many of those are very positive.
Though sadly I’ll have to withhold judgment until it is in wide release, as I was unable to get away to see it at TIFF. Did any Dopers see it I wonder?
I hope you’re right Malthus, I tend to pessimism on these things.
Also, did I read that they’re making Frobisher gay in the movie. Since the driving force of that story was his affair with the composer’s wife and his simultaneous infatuation with the composer’s daughter I can’t see how the filmed story will have the slightest connection to the story in the book.
Tom Hanks is way too old to be playing Zach’ry, who is a teenager.
“If you fall I will catch you.” Really?
I did have to laugh at the reviewer who was complaining about the line “What is an Ocean but a multitude of drops” which was one of my favorite lines from the book, and summed up it’s several themes.
I thought on reading the book that it was very clear that Frobisher was bisexual, and that Sixsmith was his lover. Frobisher was openly promiscuous but Sixsmith was monogamously loyal to him and never loves anyone else - keeping his letters for the rest of his life.
Yeah, they changed that all right. I dunno if that will change much though.
Yeah I caught that too. The same reviewer took tossing a critic as a personal affront aimed at movie critics like him (that too was in the book! 
)
I missed that about Frobisher and Sixsmith in the book. I’ll have to check it again, as i plan to re-read it before I see the movie. I thought F and S were just really good heterosexual male friends, and Sixsmith was holding on to the letters as a remembranceof his friend who had committed suicide.
No, he was bisexual. He talked about how he made some money having sex with some dude in town.
Ah OK, I missed that. Still I think his primary interest was in women, kind of like some male prostitutes would identify as straight. But I’ll have to re-read to make sure.
I can’t wait to see the Sonmi-451 scenes. I’m rereading the book and chuckled when she describes Orwell and Huxley as “optimists”. I’m glad they cast the beautiful Korean actress Bae Doo Na for Sonmi’s role. I want to see how the film visually distinguishes clones from non-clones, since she has to disguise her looks from time to time in the book.
Wow, I was worried about Halle Berry playing a Korean woman, but the link shows that Bae Doo Na plays Hawaiian and European characters in the film!
I might be mis-remembering, but I think there’s also a spot where Frobisher tells Sixsmith not to be jealous of his dalliances abroad (with broads), pretty strongly implying that they are/were lovers.
You’re probably right. I plan to re-read once I get through this George Martin tome.
Just finished the book on the implicit recommendation of the comments in this thread. I really liked the structure of the book and enjoyed reading it, some sections more than others. I’ll probably take a peek at Mitchell’s other works to see if anything interests me.
Regarding the movie, I’m skeptical the book can be adequately pared down to a 2+ hour runtime. Always interesting to see what’s cut, what’s extended, and what’s added.
Thanks for the recommendation, Dopers!