I was offended by the excision of the main character’s bisexuality and some other details of the book that were left out or fudged in the movie, but on the whole it was an enjoyable adaptation.

Solar and I went to see Little Children last night. The theater was packed. This sort of surprised me, but I guess it had been a gloomy day without much opportunity to go out, and people were eager to get out of the house.

So what do I think about Little Children? I think it’s funny and well-acted and completely well acted. The ending, though, I could have done without. The problem I had with the end of Little Children was very much the problem I have with the end of The Mermaid Chair. I’d really like characters who are in unhappy situtations to have one of two things happen to them. Either:

They accept that change is hard, and, defeated, they stay in their situation.
They make the change. It is hard, and messy, and initially worse than the initial situation, but ultimately an improvement.

This is real life. Instead, what happens in movies and novels is that the characters almost make the change, realize it is hard and that they are are terrified, and go back to their orginal unsatisfying lives, which, suddenly, are no longer unsatisfying (despite the characters having done nothing to make these lives more satisfying). Why would writers do this to their characters? And why would they do it to their readers? Is a little empowerment such a terrible thing?