Very disappointed.
I was really disappointed that I waited so long to be able to watch this movie and it was a major letdown. The book was very loosely followed and there was no character development or reason to care what happens to them.
sharei agree.
Movie and Book spoilers:
The book is vastly different and much better. I know a lot of people say "the book is better" but in this case it is not just that the book was able to take more time to tell the same story. The boot told a different and less generic story.share
The movie ends with Pemberton killing Galloway while protecting Rachel and the child. Pemberton, on his own, hunts the mountain lion and gets killed by it. Serena, after hearing this, kills herself because the without Pemberton she can not go on living. It is a "hero saves girl" and "woman kills herself because of a lost love". The Galloway and Serena deaths have a very generic feel to them and the Pemberton death seems tacked on.
In the book, everyone still dies but in a very different and more character driven manner. Rachel gets away with help from others. Thru out the book Serena's character is more the alpha personality than Pemberton. When he starts showing sympathy for Rachel and the child
she gets colder. When she realizes that Pemberton is not willing to go as far as she is she has Galloway bring him out on a hunting trip for the Lion. Galloway attacks and leaves Pemberton in the forest where the lion kills him.
While the lion killed Pemberton in both the movie and the book the book's version has more weight. It shows that Serena's love for Pemberton was lost when he helped Rachel and the boy.
The book has Serena and Galloway go to South America and are there for many years. One night an intruder enters the house and kills both of them. The intruder was Rachel and Pemberton's son.
The movie tries to say that Serena was so in love with Pemberton that she could not live without him but the book shows that her love was lost when he helped Rachel.
Thanks!
POSSIBLE SPOILER:
So the book makes it clear that Serena loved George? That she's capable of loving? I've seen others refer to her (per the book) as a psychopath/sociopath, so wondered about this.
Spoiler
I would say she had moments when she felt SOMETHING. But her feelings for George were not unconditional. There is a moment in the book where she showed concern for him after a bear attack, that she had been concerned he'd die, but she also was in love with an idea of George that she had, an idea that he was as ruthless as her. Right from the start Serena would have these moments when you knew you were talking to someone who might be a sociopath and her obsession was that her and George were the same and would be unstoppable. She fell out of love with him and had him killed after she found out he helped Rachel escape with the child because because she found that kindness weak and unworthy.