Spoilers for the movie! And the book.
OH BOY here we go.
‘The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax’ によって Liz Jensen is my favourite book of all time. Without a hint of exaggeration, I can inform あなた that I have read the book at least one billion times, and every time, I get the feels. So when a movie was finally confirmed and in production, I was filled with that dreading excitement that people get when their favourite 本 are being adapted for the big screen.
Off the back of the spectacular adaptation of ‘Life Of Pi’, I had some high hopes for ‘The 9th Life Of Louis Drax’. Both 本 are fantastical in their telling of deep psychological traumas. If ‘Life Of Pi’ could do it, so could ‘The 9th Life Of Louis Drax’, right?
Ha ha ha ok
I did have some serious reservations when the cast was announced. Jamie Dornan as Pascal? Clearly a significant departure from the book was on the cards. So I was braced for a movie that was not a faithful adaptation of the book, and shifted my hope towards a movie that recreated the spirit of the book, even if the story was being told differently.
Upon watching the movie, they did indeed capture the spirit of the book in some scenes, and in some relationships. Overall, the movie confused the fuck out of me, but I was reduced to a pile of tears at one point, and found myself reliving the book word-for-word, feeling-for-feeling at certain moments. It was a bizarre mix of radical and nonsensical departures from the 情報源 material, and incredibly faithful adaptations of the original text. Which makes my relationship with this movie significantly もっと見る complex than I had imagined. I wanted to 愛 it, または hate it.
So, I’m here to talk things through with myself, to see if によって the end I can decide where this movie figures in my life. Wish me luck.
The Things I Know I Loved
The Opening Sequence
The opening of the movie is amazing. It rips the text pretty much straight from the opening of the book. I was a little disturbed によって how animated Louis’ voice was, because I had always heard him in my head with a much flatter affect, but 全体, 全体的です the opening really got my hopes up that this movie was going to be as faithful an adaptation as it could be when you’ve cast Fifty Shades Of Boring in a role he doesn’t fit in any sense. Anyway, the first few 分 of the movie capture the 本 opening sense of humour, ファンタジー and the darkness of the shit that is to come. Unfortunately this vibe appears only inconsistently throughout the rest of the movie.
Oh and the タイトル sequence itself is exquisite.
Peter and Louis
The relationship between Peter Drax and Louis Drax is, in my opinion, one of the things that the movie gets very right, and is pretty faithful to the book. Aaron Paul’s Peter Drax was great, even if he was underutilised and had some shoddy material to work with at times. But still, I feel like every Louis and Peter interaction had the same vibe as their interactions had in the book. The only time I cried in the movie (which I would have completely sobbed through if it had been a fully faithful adaptation) was at the very end when the goodbye between Peter and Louis was shown in its entirety. I mean, it was mushy blah blah blah, but was a moment that rung true to the spirit of the book, where Peter knows Louis needs him to stay, but he is stuck in this complex, sick drama with Natalie. And Louis knows being left alone with his mother will hurt, literally. This was pretty important to me, as the Pierre/Louis bond in the book is, obviously, incredibly vital to the story. So on this front, the movie I think does well. Then, they go fuck it all up, because…
Louis and… Not Gustave…?
The movie never names Louis’ seaweedy friend (perhaps the first nod to how badly they were going to FUCK THIS UP), so I’ll call the movie version Not Gustave.
The first few encounters with Not Gustave are quite wonderful. In the early parts of the movie, there are attempts to mimic how the book is written, with Louis and Not Gustave exploring Louis’ life. Early on, these scenes almost had me crying, but they were sporadic and never quite developed into what they do in the book, which is unfold a deep bond between Louis and Gustave that is later revealed to be the relationship between Pierre and Louis. As the movie chugs along, it becomes clear that that is not the direction the movie is going. Instead, Not Gustave is never really developed. Then, as soon as we meet him properly, he is revealed to be Peter Drax.
Keen observers may be wondering why this ranting is in the ‘The Things I Know I Loved’ section. Well, WELCOME TO MY HELL. I did 愛 Not Gustave (in essence, not appearance, which I will discuss later) and the brief moments Louis had with him were again actually pretty faithful to the book, with precious lines ripped right from the pages. But the 全体, 全体的です handling of Not Gustave and his whole storyline (or rather, lack of storyline) was extremely disappointing, 与えられた that it is really the emotional crux of the entire book. Here, in the movie, it was relegated to a subplot.
Louis and Fat Perez
Surprisingly, Fat Perez was a real highlight, and his interactions with Louis were once again quite faithful to the book. Louis’ face upon meeting Perez for the first time was brilliant. Give the kid an Oscar for that alone.
In the movie, Perez wasn’t quite the drunkard he becomes in the book, but 全体, 全体的です his relationship with Louis is really funny, while also really sad. Oliver Platt did a really good job and I think he probably had the best chemistry with Aiden Longworth (Louis). I also think Aiden Longworth was at his best in those therapy scenes. He seemed to be having fun taunting Fat Perez. I still think Longworth was a little too animated as Louis, but he’s a kid in a complex role here. Plus, people will likely have their own interpretations of who Louis is that differs from my own interpretation, so while this bugged me from my own perspective, I wouldn’t see it as something that ruins the adaptation (there is plenty of other stuff that does the ruining…).
Sarah Gadon
Having never seen her in anything, I didn’t know what to expect from Sarah Gadon, but I ended up really liking her as Natalie Drax. It is a real pity the Natalie Drax storyline was terribly done, as I think she really embodied the character really well. It is a real shame she didn’t have もっと見る to work with here.
The Things I Know I Hated
Not Gustave, The Monster Mash
Not Gustave’s appearance was much もっと見る Jim Henson monstery than I ever imagined, または the book ever suggests. The book describes Gustave in still very humanoid terms, but Not Gustave is this giant, puppety looking thing. Part of the problem here is that, as I mentioned, they don’t spend time on Not Gustave, so they don’t unfold his character in the same way they book does. In the book, over time, Gustave’s appearance changes to Louis, in subtle, if horrifying, ways. In the movie, there is basically one major Not Gustave scene, and they quite quickly scale back the voice effects to reveal the crystal clear voice of Aaron Paul. くま, クマ in mind, this is the big reveal scene that, in the book, has been burning over chapters. In the movie, Louis and Not Gustave speed through a whole mess of bonding to get to the attempt at the emotional pay off of a big reveal. The only reason I found this scene in any way emotional, was that I was remembering how we got there in the book. Anyway, I’m back to ranting about what I’ve already ranted about. The main point here is that Not Gustave looked もっと見る Snuffaluffagus than the Gustave I know and love.
In the same vein, the decision to not name Louis’ monster coma friend was another sign that this storyline, for some reason, was secondary to the Natalie Drax storyline. In the book, the intrigue of Louis’ relationship with Gustave is the key mystery. Then, the Natalie Drax storyline swoops in near the end, and sets what we know about Louis on 火災, 火 (literally). However, the movie’s approach is to focus on the ‘whodunnit’ aspect of Louis’ accident and Peter’s death, and relegate Louis and Gustave to almost a childish ファンタジー of a father-son reunion, steeped only in the child’s fear. Of course, that is an element here, but Jensen’s book asks bigger 質問 about consciousness, trauma, deep psychological bonds and what death may または may not be. As many of the Louis/Not Gustave scenes were ripped from the book, but truncated and/or underplayed, these bigger, scarier 質問 don’t ever actually hit あなた in the face as they do in the book.
Jamie Dornan
Just no. A 木, ツリー stump would have shown もっと見る emotive range than Dornan did.
One huge distractor was that Dornan just barely tried with an American accent. Either let him be Irish, または make him earn his paycheck.
The re-Pascal-ing really was this movie’s main downfall. The movie’s focus was on how Sexy Doctor would fall for Sexy Distressed Mum and literally no one cares. If they had maintained the original Pascal Dannachet character from the book, then the romance that runs through the story wouldn’t have rung as false または as stereotypically Hollywood (in the sense of young-ifying everything because young = sexy = money; the romance in the book is still fairly stereotypical heteronormative poop, but poop with a twist!). That drama is not why people read the book, または what made the book different. That drama in the book was about leaving breadcrumbs for the reader as to the reality of Natalie Drax. It was NOT about Hollywood-ised romance または how many muscles Dr Sexy McSexface has. It was distressing that so much of the movie was focused on Pascal’s wooden face and wooden penis. And it didn’t even do that approach well. Dornan and Gadon had zero chemistry (whereas Gadon and Paul did) and basically Dornan made it really clear he was only there for the paycheck.
Weirdly enough though, Dornan did actually do a really fucking good job channelling Louis in the hypnosis scene. He really did sound like Louis, and looked like he was actually trying to act! Maybe he used up all his energy shooting that scene.
Natalie Drax, The Amazing Moustache Twirling Villain!
The real crime of the movie was the treatment of Natalie Drax. A Munchausen’s によって Proxy story told through a Hollywood lens was always going to be problematic, but WOW what a monumental fuck up here. Like, I am still trying to ラップ my brain around what I witnessed.
In the book, Natalie is discovered to have been in hurting Louis または enabling Louis to hurt himself (and implicated in the death of Pierre Drax), so as to receive the intense care of others. Shit goes down, and she ends up dying a fiery death. Her death is one of the enduring 画像 of the book. I was excited to see exactly how the movie would pull this off.
Ha ha ha.
Natalie Drax does not die in the movie. She gets shipped off to Fat Perez’s psychiatric hospital, where, in the closing stages of the movie, Pascal goes to visit her. She turns to greet him, revealing she is heavily pregnant.
What.
I actually laughed, because what in sweet fuck was this bullshit honestly ジーザス christ.
I have absolutely no idea how they went from ‘fiery forest death’ to ‘preggers in a looney bin’ but nevertheless that is what someone wrote, producers approved, directors shot and actors participated in.
This final image of Natalie Drax was the culmination of flashback scenes that preceded it, which showed Natalie Drax orchestrating the injuries and illnesses that Louis had introduced us to in the opening sequence. There she was, sneaking behind-the-scenes to poison her child, または electrocute, または smother him. The 全体, 全体的です impression of Natalie Drax then, is one of a moustache twirling villain, scheming away, scheme-ily, because she’s a scheming schemer of a woman! There was such a bizarre cartoon-y-ness to how they approached her character at the end of the story. And this is in such stark contrast to the desperate Natalie that flees into the forest fires in the book.
The book is a story of a “bad mother”. It is a bad mother story. Hell, Natalie is almost literally burned at the stake for her bad mothering. So the movie’s final characterisation of Natalie as a bad mother is expected. But this cinematic Natalie Drax is not portrayed, as she is in the book, as a disturbed woman (embedded in the West’s toxic heteronormativity), but rather as some sort of evil, demented cartoon villain with a dastardly plan. For example, in the book, Natalie and Pascal’s romance is about Natalie continuing her sympathy cycles, keeping Louis’ doctor close to her and getting her attention fix at the same time. However, in the movie, Natalie’s romance with Allen is presented ultimately as much もっと見る a scheme to get pregnant and get another guy on the hook. This is much もっと見る a misogynist 読書 of the Natalie Drax character, and plays into that old idea of women trapping men によって becoming pregnant. In the book, this is underplayed. In the movie, it almost becomes the damn moral of movie.
This also kinda connects with another of the story changes that bugged me in the movie. In the book, at the picnic, it is discovered that Louis has been consuming Natalie’s birth control pills, as he believes this will stop him becoming a rapist, signalling to Pierre that it is time to remove Louis from Natalie, and this is the catalyst for the argument that sends both Pierre and Louis off the cliff. In the movie, Natalie offers Louis some candies she made for him, and refuses to let Peter have any, which signals to Peter that she has poisoned the candies in order to make Louis sick. This becomes the catalyst for the fight and subsequent cliff-diving. This is a significant dumbing down of the original story.
In addition, rather than introducing Louis’ obsession with rape (admittedly difficult to deal with when working with child actors), the movie swings in a different direction, having him draw big, naked boobs while in therapy and saying “hubba hubba” as an image of actress Emma Watson flashes across the screen. Again, this is a dumbing down of a complex story and seemingly reducing Louis’ incredibly complex understandings/misunderstandings of rape down to almost a “boys will be boys” thing.
Anyway, the Natalie Drax character in the movie is, in the end, dealt with very badly and quite dangerously. Munchausen’s によって Proxy is a real thing, and it is really serious, both for the children and the parent involved (almost always mothers), as well as the families and health care professionals who encounter the disorder. Treating it as a Scooby-Doo villain was not something I expected from this movie.
So My Final Verdict?
The descent into the Natalie Drax storyline was such a departure from the original story that it really threw the entire movie into chaos. It was bizarre and frustrating to watch scenes that were so faithful to the book, then witness the trainwreck that was Pascal and Natalie.
I guess this is the most confusing part. Why were they so faithful to so many of Liz Jensen’s words, but not her story, または its pacing? They took so much of it, and yet it was in tatters. There were so many moments were they had it, but they let it slip away in favour of Borenan and his plank of a face.
Overall, I think I am grateful for the wonderful moments I did get. I wasn’t actually expecting such faithfulness to Jensen’s words at such key moments. There were a few scenes that were just beautiful, and not everyone can say that about their favourite books-turned-movies.
So my final verdict: Wacko Movie.
OH BOY here we go.
‘The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax’ によって Liz Jensen is my favourite book of all time. Without a hint of exaggeration, I can inform あなた that I have read the book at least one billion times, and every time, I get the feels. So when a movie was finally confirmed and in production, I was filled with that dreading excitement that people get when their favourite 本 are being adapted for the big screen.
Off the back of the spectacular adaptation of ‘Life Of Pi’, I had some high hopes for ‘The 9th Life Of Louis Drax’. Both 本 are fantastical in their telling of deep psychological traumas. If ‘Life Of Pi’ could do it, so could ‘The 9th Life Of Louis Drax’, right?
Ha ha ha ok
I did have some serious reservations when the cast was announced. Jamie Dornan as Pascal? Clearly a significant departure from the book was on the cards. So I was braced for a movie that was not a faithful adaptation of the book, and shifted my hope towards a movie that recreated the spirit of the book, even if the story was being told differently.
Upon watching the movie, they did indeed capture the spirit of the book in some scenes, and in some relationships. Overall, the movie confused the fuck out of me, but I was reduced to a pile of tears at one point, and found myself reliving the book word-for-word, feeling-for-feeling at certain moments. It was a bizarre mix of radical and nonsensical departures from the 情報源 material, and incredibly faithful adaptations of the original text. Which makes my relationship with this movie significantly もっと見る complex than I had imagined. I wanted to 愛 it, または hate it.
So, I’m here to talk things through with myself, to see if によって the end I can decide where this movie figures in my life. Wish me luck.
The Things I Know I Loved
The Opening Sequence
The opening of the movie is amazing. It rips the text pretty much straight from the opening of the book. I was a little disturbed によって how animated Louis’ voice was, because I had always heard him in my head with a much flatter affect, but 全体, 全体的です the opening really got my hopes up that this movie was going to be as faithful an adaptation as it could be when you’ve cast Fifty Shades Of Boring in a role he doesn’t fit in any sense. Anyway, the first few 分 of the movie capture the 本 opening sense of humour, ファンタジー and the darkness of the shit that is to come. Unfortunately this vibe appears only inconsistently throughout the rest of the movie.
Oh and the タイトル sequence itself is exquisite.
Peter and Louis
The relationship between Peter Drax and Louis Drax is, in my opinion, one of the things that the movie gets very right, and is pretty faithful to the book. Aaron Paul’s Peter Drax was great, even if he was underutilised and had some shoddy material to work with at times. But still, I feel like every Louis and Peter interaction had the same vibe as their interactions had in the book. The only time I cried in the movie (which I would have completely sobbed through if it had been a fully faithful adaptation) was at the very end when the goodbye between Peter and Louis was shown in its entirety. I mean, it was mushy blah blah blah, but was a moment that rung true to the spirit of the book, where Peter knows Louis needs him to stay, but he is stuck in this complex, sick drama with Natalie. And Louis knows being left alone with his mother will hurt, literally. This was pretty important to me, as the Pierre/Louis bond in the book is, obviously, incredibly vital to the story. So on this front, the movie I think does well. Then, they go fuck it all up, because…
Louis and… Not Gustave…?
The movie never names Louis’ seaweedy friend (perhaps the first nod to how badly they were going to FUCK THIS UP), so I’ll call the movie version Not Gustave.
The first few encounters with Not Gustave are quite wonderful. In the early parts of the movie, there are attempts to mimic how the book is written, with Louis and Not Gustave exploring Louis’ life. Early on, these scenes almost had me crying, but they were sporadic and never quite developed into what they do in the book, which is unfold a deep bond between Louis and Gustave that is later revealed to be the relationship between Pierre and Louis. As the movie chugs along, it becomes clear that that is not the direction the movie is going. Instead, Not Gustave is never really developed. Then, as soon as we meet him properly, he is revealed to be Peter Drax.
Keen observers may be wondering why this ranting is in the ‘The Things I Know I Loved’ section. Well, WELCOME TO MY HELL. I did 愛 Not Gustave (in essence, not appearance, which I will discuss later) and the brief moments Louis had with him were again actually pretty faithful to the book, with precious lines ripped right from the pages. But the 全体, 全体的です handling of Not Gustave and his whole storyline (or rather, lack of storyline) was extremely disappointing, 与えられた that it is really the emotional crux of the entire book. Here, in the movie, it was relegated to a subplot.
Louis and Fat Perez
Surprisingly, Fat Perez was a real highlight, and his interactions with Louis were once again quite faithful to the book. Louis’ face upon meeting Perez for the first time was brilliant. Give the kid an Oscar for that alone.
In the movie, Perez wasn’t quite the drunkard he becomes in the book, but 全体, 全体的です his relationship with Louis is really funny, while also really sad. Oliver Platt did a really good job and I think he probably had the best chemistry with Aiden Longworth (Louis). I also think Aiden Longworth was at his best in those therapy scenes. He seemed to be having fun taunting Fat Perez. I still think Longworth was a little too animated as Louis, but he’s a kid in a complex role here. Plus, people will likely have their own interpretations of who Louis is that differs from my own interpretation, so while this bugged me from my own perspective, I wouldn’t see it as something that ruins the adaptation (there is plenty of other stuff that does the ruining…).
Sarah Gadon
Having never seen her in anything, I didn’t know what to expect from Sarah Gadon, but I ended up really liking her as Natalie Drax. It is a real pity the Natalie Drax storyline was terribly done, as I think she really embodied the character really well. It is a real shame she didn’t have もっと見る to work with here.
The Things I Know I Hated
Not Gustave, The Monster Mash
Not Gustave’s appearance was much もっと見る Jim Henson monstery than I ever imagined, または the book ever suggests. The book describes Gustave in still very humanoid terms, but Not Gustave is this giant, puppety looking thing. Part of the problem here is that, as I mentioned, they don’t spend time on Not Gustave, so they don’t unfold his character in the same way they book does. In the book, over time, Gustave’s appearance changes to Louis, in subtle, if horrifying, ways. In the movie, there is basically one major Not Gustave scene, and they quite quickly scale back the voice effects to reveal the crystal clear voice of Aaron Paul. くま, クマ in mind, this is the big reveal scene that, in the book, has been burning over chapters. In the movie, Louis and Not Gustave speed through a whole mess of bonding to get to the attempt at the emotional pay off of a big reveal. The only reason I found this scene in any way emotional, was that I was remembering how we got there in the book. Anyway, I’m back to ranting about what I’ve already ranted about. The main point here is that Not Gustave looked もっと見る Snuffaluffagus than the Gustave I know and love.
In the same vein, the decision to not name Louis’ monster coma friend was another sign that this storyline, for some reason, was secondary to the Natalie Drax storyline. In the book, the intrigue of Louis’ relationship with Gustave is the key mystery. Then, the Natalie Drax storyline swoops in near the end, and sets what we know about Louis on 火災, 火 (literally). However, the movie’s approach is to focus on the ‘whodunnit’ aspect of Louis’ accident and Peter’s death, and relegate Louis and Gustave to almost a childish ファンタジー of a father-son reunion, steeped only in the child’s fear. Of course, that is an element here, but Jensen’s book asks bigger 質問 about consciousness, trauma, deep psychological bonds and what death may または may not be. As many of the Louis/Not Gustave scenes were ripped from the book, but truncated and/or underplayed, these bigger, scarier 質問 don’t ever actually hit あなた in the face as they do in the book.
Jamie Dornan
Just no. A 木, ツリー stump would have shown もっと見る emotive range than Dornan did.
One huge distractor was that Dornan just barely tried with an American accent. Either let him be Irish, または make him earn his paycheck.
The re-Pascal-ing really was this movie’s main downfall. The movie’s focus was on how Sexy Doctor would fall for Sexy Distressed Mum and literally no one cares. If they had maintained the original Pascal Dannachet character from the book, then the romance that runs through the story wouldn’t have rung as false または as stereotypically Hollywood (in the sense of young-ifying everything because young = sexy = money; the romance in the book is still fairly stereotypical heteronormative poop, but poop with a twist!). That drama is not why people read the book, または what made the book different. That drama in the book was about leaving breadcrumbs for the reader as to the reality of Natalie Drax. It was NOT about Hollywood-ised romance または how many muscles Dr Sexy McSexface has. It was distressing that so much of the movie was focused on Pascal’s wooden face and wooden penis. And it didn’t even do that approach well. Dornan and Gadon had zero chemistry (whereas Gadon and Paul did) and basically Dornan made it really clear he was only there for the paycheck.
Weirdly enough though, Dornan did actually do a really fucking good job channelling Louis in the hypnosis scene. He really did sound like Louis, and looked like he was actually trying to act! Maybe he used up all his energy shooting that scene.
Natalie Drax, The Amazing Moustache Twirling Villain!
The real crime of the movie was the treatment of Natalie Drax. A Munchausen’s によって Proxy story told through a Hollywood lens was always going to be problematic, but WOW what a monumental fuck up here. Like, I am still trying to ラップ my brain around what I witnessed.
In the book, Natalie is discovered to have been in hurting Louis または enabling Louis to hurt himself (and implicated in the death of Pierre Drax), so as to receive the intense care of others. Shit goes down, and she ends up dying a fiery death. Her death is one of the enduring 画像 of the book. I was excited to see exactly how the movie would pull this off.
Ha ha ha.
Natalie Drax does not die in the movie. She gets shipped off to Fat Perez’s psychiatric hospital, where, in the closing stages of the movie, Pascal goes to visit her. She turns to greet him, revealing she is heavily pregnant.
What.
I actually laughed, because what in sweet fuck was this bullshit honestly ジーザス christ.
I have absolutely no idea how they went from ‘fiery forest death’ to ‘preggers in a looney bin’ but nevertheless that is what someone wrote, producers approved, directors shot and actors participated in.
This final image of Natalie Drax was the culmination of flashback scenes that preceded it, which showed Natalie Drax orchestrating the injuries and illnesses that Louis had introduced us to in the opening sequence. There she was, sneaking behind-the-scenes to poison her child, または electrocute, または smother him. The 全体, 全体的です impression of Natalie Drax then, is one of a moustache twirling villain, scheming away, scheme-ily, because she’s a scheming schemer of a woman! There was such a bizarre cartoon-y-ness to how they approached her character at the end of the story. And this is in such stark contrast to the desperate Natalie that flees into the forest fires in the book.
The book is a story of a “bad mother”. It is a bad mother story. Hell, Natalie is almost literally burned at the stake for her bad mothering. So the movie’s final characterisation of Natalie as a bad mother is expected. But this cinematic Natalie Drax is not portrayed, as she is in the book, as a disturbed woman (embedded in the West’s toxic heteronormativity), but rather as some sort of evil, demented cartoon villain with a dastardly plan. For example, in the book, Natalie and Pascal’s romance is about Natalie continuing her sympathy cycles, keeping Louis’ doctor close to her and getting her attention fix at the same time. However, in the movie, Natalie’s romance with Allen is presented ultimately as much もっと見る a scheme to get pregnant and get another guy on the hook. This is much もっと見る a misogynist 読書 of the Natalie Drax character, and plays into that old idea of women trapping men によって becoming pregnant. In the book, this is underplayed. In the movie, it almost becomes the damn moral of movie.
This also kinda connects with another of the story changes that bugged me in the movie. In the book, at the picnic, it is discovered that Louis has been consuming Natalie’s birth control pills, as he believes this will stop him becoming a rapist, signalling to Pierre that it is time to remove Louis from Natalie, and this is the catalyst for the argument that sends both Pierre and Louis off the cliff. In the movie, Natalie offers Louis some candies she made for him, and refuses to let Peter have any, which signals to Peter that she has poisoned the candies in order to make Louis sick. This becomes the catalyst for the fight and subsequent cliff-diving. This is a significant dumbing down of the original story.
In addition, rather than introducing Louis’ obsession with rape (admittedly difficult to deal with when working with child actors), the movie swings in a different direction, having him draw big, naked boobs while in therapy and saying “hubba hubba” as an image of actress Emma Watson flashes across the screen. Again, this is a dumbing down of a complex story and seemingly reducing Louis’ incredibly complex understandings/misunderstandings of rape down to almost a “boys will be boys” thing.
Anyway, the Natalie Drax character in the movie is, in the end, dealt with very badly and quite dangerously. Munchausen’s によって Proxy is a real thing, and it is really serious, both for the children and the parent involved (almost always mothers), as well as the families and health care professionals who encounter the disorder. Treating it as a Scooby-Doo villain was not something I expected from this movie.
So My Final Verdict?
The descent into the Natalie Drax storyline was such a departure from the original story that it really threw the entire movie into chaos. It was bizarre and frustrating to watch scenes that were so faithful to the book, then witness the trainwreck that was Pascal and Natalie.
I guess this is the most confusing part. Why were they so faithful to so many of Liz Jensen’s words, but not her story, または its pacing? They took so much of it, and yet it was in tatters. There were so many moments were they had it, but they let it slip away in favour of Borenan and his plank of a face.
Overall, I think I am grateful for the wonderful moments I did get. I wasn’t actually expecting such faithfulness to Jensen’s words at such key moments. There were a few scenes that were just beautiful, and not everyone can say that about their favourite books-turned-movies.
So my final verdict: Wacko Movie.