... read the book! It is a beautiful love story between two broken people, one more so than the other. The novel will break your heart. The movie will bore you to death. How can a writer betray her characters like that ? I never would have thought it possible. There are no dialogues, no real emotion or chemistry. You know nothing about one or the other, who they are, where they come from, why they mean so much to each other, what they each bring to the table and how they all mess it up.
Even the ending is different, less dark. So maybe that was the message of the director : it would have been better if Gloria had fallen for a Frances rather than an Eric. Gay couples are happier and better suited than straight ones?
It would have been all right if that had been the only change between the novel and the film, but it wasn't. Even the way they meet again is different. Frances just shows up for no reason in the bar where Gloria is, 30 years later. She doesn't look happy or excited, just blasé. They hook up again but the viewer doesn't get it: what is the attraction between these two women ?
The movie is like a very bad reader's digest of the book. So please, read the novel. It will make you feel and think.
