I just created an IMDB account to be able to write this review.
I won't go into detail in terms of rating; most has been said in other reviews.
But I watched the movie just after reading the book. And I read the book because I knew about the film but wanted the reading experience first.
The book is better. No surprises here. And the movie is close to the book in that it doesn't invent much. But the book DOES explain everything and goes much, much more in depth about the motivations of the characters and the "fish people" (the Citauca) plus a few more plot lines. I quite enjoyed the book, especially for the writing style. I would not recommend the movie.
Here's the explanation I would have liked if I only saw the movie:
She's a siren. (Aneris = Sirena in Catalan). The siren has decided, just as the men, to leave her society behind and be stranded on the island. At nights, when she sings, all her people go mad after her. Gruner (Batís Caffó in the novel) is obsessed with her (the sex and violence part is much more prominent in the book) and the young man becomes also sexually and violently obsessed (omitted in the movie). You're lead to believe that Gruner is just xenophobic and mad, but what he really is is trying to have her all for himself. When he's confronted with all the pain he has caused by the young man, he sacrifices. The young man only to take his place obsessed with the siren.
I would have liked this to be more like The Lighthouse (2019). In fact, that movie is a closer experience to what reading the book is, but without the fantasy and thrill. Plot holes and acting aside, it's a good production for an European fantasy film.
I won't go into detail in terms of rating; most has been said in other reviews.
But I watched the movie just after reading the book. And I read the book because I knew about the film but wanted the reading experience first.
The book is better. No surprises here. And the movie is close to the book in that it doesn't invent much. But the book DOES explain everything and goes much, much more in depth about the motivations of the characters and the "fish people" (the Citauca) plus a few more plot lines. I quite enjoyed the book, especially for the writing style. I would not recommend the movie.
Here's the explanation I would have liked if I only saw the movie:
She's a siren. (Aneris = Sirena in Catalan). The siren has decided, just as the men, to leave her society behind and be stranded on the island. At nights, when she sings, all her people go mad after her. Gruner (Batís Caffó in the novel) is obsessed with her (the sex and violence part is much more prominent in the book) and the young man becomes also sexually and violently obsessed (omitted in the movie). You're lead to believe that Gruner is just xenophobic and mad, but what he really is is trying to have her all for himself. When he's confronted with all the pain he has caused by the young man, he sacrifices. The young man only to take his place obsessed with the siren.
I would have liked this to be more like The Lighthouse (2019). In fact, that movie is a closer experience to what reading the book is, but without the fantasy and thrill. Plot holes and acting aside, it's a good production for an European fantasy film.