Actually, I discovered that my local library had a copy of Scott Heim's novel, and read it for... partly just to torture myself, I guess, but partly to see if the story was more or less disturbing in a different medium. And I think the movie does the story better. Which is an odd thing for me to say -- I almost always prefer books to the films made from them -- but there are a number of reasons.
First, I find the book overwritten; the narrative voice distracts from the story instead of serving it. Second, while the book explains a lot of background details about the boys' families, they're mostly tangential to the main story; the movie is more streamlined and has a much harder emotional wallop. Third, I like that in the film Wendy and Eric get to interact; in the book they never meet. Fourth, while Brian is less passive in the book, I think the scale of his damage in the movie balances better with Neil's damage. Fifth, the movie has better dialogue, even in the voiceover narration; Heim often has a tin ear for natural speech rhythms. Plus, you know, the movie has amazing performances.
The book is still massively upsetting, though. :-(
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Date: 2011-05-26 09:44 am (UTC)Actually, I discovered that my local library had a copy of Scott Heim's novel, and read it for... partly just to torture myself, I guess, but partly to see if the story was more or less disturbing in a different medium. And I think the movie does the story better. Which is an odd thing for me to say -- I almost always prefer books to the films made from them -- but there are a number of reasons.
First, I find the book overwritten; the narrative voice distracts from the story instead of serving it. Second, while the book explains a lot of background details about the boys' families, they're mostly tangential to the main story; the movie is more streamlined and has a much harder emotional wallop. Third, I like that in the film Wendy and Eric get to interact; in the book they never meet. Fourth, while Brian is less passive in the book, I think the scale of his damage in the movie balances better with Neil's damage. Fifth, the movie has better dialogue, even in the voiceover narration; Heim often has a tin ear for natural speech rhythms. Plus, you know, the movie has amazing performances.
The book is still massively upsetting, though. :-(