For Bill Bryson fans?

It's been so long, I barely remember the book. I remember Bryson had a funny descriptive "voice" that gets a bit lost in translation to screen. The TV interview and funeral scenes at the start capture it a bit, but then it trails off (pun intended).

Read the book many years ago and saw the movie today. Redford I believe tried to stay true to the book's gentle pace and Katz's over the top language. The omitted some people they ran into on the trail presumably for time's sake. All in all a faithful screenplay that honors the book. Worth seeing...

I read the book a very long time ago, then re-read it about 2 months ago knowing the film was coming out. The book made me laugh out loud many times, even the second time I read it. I would wake my husband up in the night laughing because I couldn't contain my laughter.

As for the movie, I got a few chuckles. I could get past the obvious age difference in the actors and the real life people in the book, but they took all the humor out of Bill Bryson. And included WAY too much emphasis on his family at home in the beginning. That was barely part of the book.

So, I would say, if you're a HUGE fan of the book, you're probably going to be disappointed. For people who never read the book, I'm sure they will find it to be a perfectly good light comedy with solid actors.


They're, their, there. They're different. Trust me on this.

from what i've heard about the film I am doubtful. T he book is very funny, but the film seems to be more of an emotional drama. not to mention that the actors are about 30 years older than the people they're playing, which must make a difference.

Well I've loved the book since it was first released and have read it many times. The film diverges a lot, things happen that don't in the book, the ages are totally different and so it's a different kind of story, and it's not as overtly humorous as the book. That's not to say it isn't funny, it is, just not as the book. But they got the pacing right, Redford and Nolte are terrific together and so I look at it as just a loose adaptation. Overall it's my favourite movie of the year so far, something about it really struck a chord with me. So don't expect to see a totally faithful version of the book because it's not that; what it is is a wonderful movie with a lot of humour and heart to it. I loved it a lot.

Dont regret watching the movie but wont remember it next year.
The book on the other hand i read many years ago and its still a fond memory, the book definitely did manage to some extent convey the feeling of a hike the movies focus seemed to wide ending up with a vague feeling.

It's Thunderbolt Kid meets Sundance Kid - and they both lose. To Katz. I don't know if I'd be offended or enchanted if I were to be portrayed by someone 30 years my senior, but of such cinematic calibre, so I had a hard time trying to get past a character who's wife is so comparatively young that to have a 30-something son she must have been a child delinquent.
I'd say I'm disappointed. In the book America is the star - at least the part of it we read through - but here it's the picaresque Katz who upstages everything, to the movie's detriment. Don't think of it as a movie of a book - just a rendition of AWITW as if the scriptwriters' premise was based upon an idea of a title they saw while passing the bookstore.

This was a lot better than I expected. It was genuinely funny and satisfyingly faithful to the book.