When this film was announced I must admit I was skeptical that such a complex story could be made into a series. When I saw that Netflix was behind it I grew still more skeptical. My wife and I both loved the novel...we only got halfway through episode two of this abomination before tuning it out and moving on.
If you haven't read the book you may find this enjoyable as a typical Netflix war film. If you have read the book then you shouldn't bother because there's little you will recognize from it in this film. The writing here is terrible, the acting is just passable, and the characterizations do not come close to capturing those from the book. Most of the German military members are portrayed as raging psychopaths, the two main characters, the blind French girl (with an English accent through most of the film) and the German soldier, are very poorly portrayed here with neither actor (nor the writers) capturing the very complicated essence of either of them.
There are story lines here that were not in the book at all and others that were central to the book that are missing completely. It's just lazy and incompetent writing, nothing more.
If you're going to attempt to translate a Pulitzer Prize winning novel to film you should be willing to devote the necessary air time to it, you should hire competent writers and actors...and you shouldn't be Netflix.
This was a great opportunity to turn a truly incredible novel into a great movie and Netflix missed it completely.
If you've read the book and loved it don't waste your time. If you read the book, loved it, and give this drek a good rating then you didn't get the book at all.
If you haven't read the book you may find this enjoyable as a typical Netflix war film. If you have read the book then you shouldn't bother because there's little you will recognize from it in this film. The writing here is terrible, the acting is just passable, and the characterizations do not come close to capturing those from the book. Most of the German military members are portrayed as raging psychopaths, the two main characters, the blind French girl (with an English accent through most of the film) and the German soldier, are very poorly portrayed here with neither actor (nor the writers) capturing the very complicated essence of either of them.
There are story lines here that were not in the book at all and others that were central to the book that are missing completely. It's just lazy and incompetent writing, nothing more.
If you're going to attempt to translate a Pulitzer Prize winning novel to film you should be willing to devote the necessary air time to it, you should hire competent writers and actors...and you shouldn't be Netflix.
This was a great opportunity to turn a truly incredible novel into a great movie and Netflix missed it completely.
If you've read the book and loved it don't waste your time. If you read the book, loved it, and give this drek a good rating then you didn't get the book at all.