Thank goodness Mathew Quick made the decision to leave his teaching job to write full time in 2004 or we wouldn't have Silver Lining Playbook or "Forgive me Leonard Peacock" and "Every Exquisite thing" his latest book "The Reason You Are Alive" will be out in 2017 All of his books have been optioned for film ,which I thought was cool. I will be reviewing other books that have been made into film as a part if a new series here on the blog. Now to clarify I'm not a film critic so any points made about the films are my opinion as a regular everyday person's point of view. I decided to start with "Silver Lining Playbook" because:
A) I already saw the movie
B) Most important I read the book after seeing the movie.
In the past, I would read the book first then watch the movie ,and inevitability spend a lot of time comparing the movie to book which ends up being less fun(except for The Hunger Games I liked both the books and movies pretty well) I am aware you can't put every nuance of a book into a 2 hour and really who wants to sit through a 3 hour movie? However I find it a little annoying when there is a key thing,(spoiler alert) where Peter is killed in the movie but not the book. It seemed like a small thing until you go see Insurgent and realize how much has changed because of one key thing .It changed the whole trajectory of the movies. Luckily no problem with that here.
One thing I noticed was how different the Father was in the book compared to the movie, much more closed off less OCD. Chris Tucker's character ,much to my surprise, didn't show up in the book until almost the very end. This book was less descriptive than most contemporary literature books I like but he did an excellent job of showing what its like for someone struggling with mental illness. I enjoyed it even though I knew how it would end. I give the book 4 out of 5 stars . I give the movie 5 out of 5 stars
