Pajiba

Hmmmmm, Eric Bana and Rachel M, now that at least guarantees a certain watchability.

Isn't he a little old for her...?

NO! Listen, I have been really good. I haven't attacked anybody's literary taste in weeks. I have shied away from all threads where I might have to let people know how little they know about subjects in which I am a self-appointed expert. I have been polite and at worst stand-offish. Have I not?
And all I wanted in return was to know that they didn't fuck this one up. This is a dark, dark book. Yes, there's a great love story there, but it's a book full of pain and the desperation of snatching moments of joy from a life that you know is doomed to extreme, wistful, loneliness. How could they do this to it? You're all on notice now. I'm back to full bitch-throttle because of this.

Ok, I will watch this on tv when my hormones are raging. Just saying.
Plus, I feel I'm obligated to watch any movie set in Chicago - I think it's written in the bylaws of the city or something.

Oh, hell.

Oh, and can't help but think this should have been filmed by a European director - I think they would have hit the tone that Paddydog mentions above.

Oh holy time-travelling balls, that's disappointing. I'll still rent it since I'll be unendingly curious.

I need to reread this, it's been about two years.

Ugh, you're right! This is SO the wrong tone. Which will make it all the more dis-jointed when it has the book's ending (which I'm assured it does). Thus, it will alienate people like my mom who want the sappy/happy ending instead of a Nicholas Sparks sobfest, and people like me who want the depressing/beautiful love story.

OK, so his clothes and jewelry don't travel with him? That must be embarassing when he arrives at his next destination. How does he find perfectly fitting clothes when he arrives without running around nekkid for a while? I noticed in the trailer he always arrives clothed. RIPOFF! We want to see the nekkid arrivals.

BWeaves:

There are actually some very entertaining parts of the book that deal with his arrivals "au naturel". One of the things that bothered me most about that trailer was the way they dealt with the time shifts: they looked inconsistent from scene to scene and also played for the shock value which wasn't the tone I got from the book at all: a lot less shock and a lot more irritation and embarrassment.

Definitely entertaining, Paddy. Just how he had to learn to fight and steal and keep himself in great shape so he'd survive. And then even going so far as to train a younger version of himself.
I worry that the movie will have far less action.

I'm still going to see it anyway, because the book is amazing, and I'll just hope that it's at least ok. If I go in with low expectations it can only be good, right?

Right?!

KatSings:

The fading away really bothers me. It reminds me of the Invisible Man with David McCallum when he would unwrap the bandages. Not at all how it's supposed to be.

I wish Hollywood would learn this one lesson: Some books are not meant to be filmed.

This light-weight frivolous pablum with a Snow Patrol (?) song playing over it.

Actually, it's "Broken" by Lifehouse. Snow Patrol may have their lightweight moments, but nothing quite so sappy as that moany little whinefest in the trailer.

And while I haven't read the book, I do sympathise with everyone currently having their literary experiences violated. Honestly, considering how often movie adaptations are truly awful and only manage to taint the book in question, how long will it be before we collectively stop hoping for more? On the other hand:

You're all on notice now. I'm back to full bitch-throttle because of this.

Posted by: PaddyDog at June 15, 2009 11:08 AM

Funsies! Someone should ruin PaddyDog's favourite books every day!

I started this book and it bored the shit out of me. Am I missing something?

I picked it up a couple of times in the bookstore, and each time I try to read a few pages - then put it back. The writer just doesn't grab me.

So, in summary, I don't know.

It's like "The Notebook" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and "The Butterfly Effect" had a movie-baby. And if I know anything, it's that if I don't like any of a kid's three mismatched parents, I'm not going to like that pathetic asshole of a child either.

aww FUCK and I was having such a good day till this.

they ruined the movie, its not even that much about the wife its darker and more violent ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH NONONO
bastards, no snow no freezing no funny parts of him running naked, it seems lite and fluffy for non reading audiences the dumb people win yet again

I read this book because of all the love for it here - thank you all, that was a really good book! - and I don't think there's any way to catch what was good about it on the screen. I like Eric Bana just fine for Henry, but the book was about so much more than his magically popping in and out of her life. I cried and cried over this book - I don't dare see the movie in public! But video...maybe...oh, probably not. WOW did that book make me cry! And I ain't no crybaby. *snif* darn book.

Hmmm. The tone in the trailer is lighter than the book, but it certainly doesn't feel like "freakin' Serendipity with a time travel element" to me.

Like so many, I loved this book, and I got choked up watching the trailer because I was remembering how painful and wonderful the book was. But I have no illusions that the movie is going to capture all of that; how could it unless it was being directed by a combination of Darren Aronovsky and Jacques Demy?

This trailer appears to put the movie squarely in 'Truly Madly Deeply' territory, which feels just about right to me.

It doesn't look *horrible* but it also doesn't look GOOD. The book, to me, was much darker and more tragic than this sun-filled trailer where he gently fades away each time he vanishes. His time travel is traumatic, and hard and sudden! Terrible things happen with their intial efforts to have a child, terrible things happen to henry. The book may be a love story, but it isn't this sappy, schlocky thing the trailer makes it out to be.

Wait...are you saying the trailer might not accurately represent the movie?

i am of the camp who generally loved the book (though i hated the ending...). but the book is not the sappy story in this trailer - it's darkness with a few points of light. and eric bana is NOT henry. i always pictured someone more like james mcavoy, who can pull off nerdy and edgy at the same time...

so happy to hear that this is a pile of crap; that trailer certainly seems like crap; i always thought that max tivoli book that came out around the same time was much better but what the hell do i know

My favorite moment that will most likely be left out (with an effort to avoid spoilers): the artwork she makes when she 'can't hear it'. Bawling, my friends. Bawling.

Thank you, Pajiba, for convincing me to read this tragically poignant story of timeless love.

I'm very worried about this movie. The book was so incredible that the film will, in all likelihood not be as good as I'd like it to be. While some films come very close to being just as powerful(hello Little Children!), the film is not going in the right direction. Yeah, the trailer kind of doesn't suck, but still, it lays on the sappy factor very heavily.
And I've never been a fan of the casting, as good as both McAdams and Bana may be.

Awwww hell I'll watch it only because I have a borderline psychotic crush (think standing over her sleeping form and breathing heavily psychotic) on Rachel McAdams and have loved Bana since well since he first appeared on screen

There is no way that this thing doesn't just suck.
And, there is no way that I don't go and see it, in spite of this foresight, loathing myself the whole time.

Nobody is going to read this comment so many days later, but I went and bought the book yesterday when I was selling stuff back at Half Price. 12 hours later, I had finished it. For the life of me, I couldn't put the fucking thing down.
And yeah, when I was done I almost cried, but I was also too happy to cry. Very strange.

So now I can say with authority that the trailer looks insipid and frightful. And if I don't get to see some of Clare's sculptures, I might smack someone.
And yes, the fading out doesn't match AT ALL what I had in my head. And Bana doesn't match Henry at all, either.
I had a quasi-handsome nerdy punk in my head. You know, LIKE HE WAS DESCRIBED. Very lean, kind of whip-thin . . . wiry. Very much a guy who randomly stole and survived. Not Bana. And McAdams is playing a watered-down version of Clare. I don't like it.