Once again, a really good book doesn’t survive the massive butchery necessary to get it on screen.

The book has much more character depth, and takes a lot more time to slowly and believably build Noone’s growing distrust, the surrounding mystery, and the general suspense.

Also, why the hell was Rory Culkin in this movie? There was absolutely no reason to show him at all, except maybe if you want audiences who already need plots spoon-fed to them to be even more confused.

It was well-acted, though, and not a terrible movie; just nowhere near the level the book achieved.

the plot is a bit thin. at the end of the movie, we still don’t know what happened to donna when she was young. the story doesn’t seem to tie in together. at the end, the credits tell us that the story was based on an actual phone call by a boy whose existence was never proven. i guess the writers want to leave it to the audience’s imagination. however, there are too many unanswered questions, which don’t make for a good movie, in spite of the good acting by robin williams.

SPOILER ALERT

I really wanted to like this film. I think both stars are highly talented. It was decent, it kept me wondering, it surprised me. I did feel sympathy/empathy for the Robin Williams character. I think Toni Collette is a great actor.

However… I felt it left me hanging. I understand after seeing the note at the end that this was based off a true story and there was no real resolution. However this still kind of annoyed me. I realize that’s unfair, but that’s still my feeling. I’m not saying I need a Hollywood wrapped up every loose end with a happy ending sort of thing – but I need to at least feel that things have moved ahead/changed/grown.

I just felt that i hadn’t really learned anything, that nothing had changed.

Robin Williams is still lonely & as unsure of his relationship as he was at the beginning. His relationship with his dad is sort of hinted at but not explored in depth – why is he even in the film? We still don’t know (though we assume he’s not) if the boy existed. We get a hint of why Toni Collete’s character does what she does (why pick him, why fake the kid, why fake blindness, what happened to her as a kid?) – but no real answer.

Also, the laughing off/ignoring/accepting offensive namecalling was rather jarring and kept annoying me. The “I am a cute Chink girl” was really offensive & unnecessary. I understood his initial comment explaining that his dad was racist – but the way she tried to accept that terminology just bothered me. (I’ve never really believed in that “reclaiming negative terms” and “it’s OK when I call myself a bad name”. And I know the homophobic jokes are supposed to imply a ignorant teenager who doesn’t know better but to see Robin Williams just laugh them off and let them continue is kind of annoying.

In summary, worth watching to see how it unfolds and to discover the secrets, or if you like the main starts, but other than that not too satisfying.