Actually pretty decent film...

Given the low critical rating, I had low expectations for this. But it was actually quite OK. I liked the starting premise of the movie. A former family-killing survivor living on donations - that's pretty interesting. And also the "murder club" of people trying to solve old crimes - also interesting idea. I would have liked the movie to develop these ideas more. Instead, the movie focused a lot on flashbacks, which I didn't find very interesting. But an OK movie, overall.

Agree - just watched it. Not as good as the book but I had low expectations for the movie after seeing reviews of it. It was not a bad movie at all, though not as fleshed out or well paced as the book was. Christina Hendricks was indeed very touching as the mom, and very believable. Also young Ben I thought was really good. And young Michelle, she is so awful and the young actress really captured that horrible busybody persona in the short screentime that she had.

The low point of the movie for me was young Diondra - Chloe Moretz is not bad but played her more vulnerable than as the destructive, dominating force of nature lunatic she was in the book. Made Ben seem really pathetic that he couldn't stand up to the movie version. And where was the great 80's spiral perm? Older Diondra was pretty much spot on. Though Crystal looked way young for someone who should have been 30.

I thought Charlize Theron was good as Libby. She is obviously a talented actress and I thought she portrayed Libby as a believably messed up adult emerging from her life of hiding from the world. As a book reader, I was a little put off as her appearance was drastically different from the book character. And Libby's looks and stature was kind of a big part of the plot of the novel, as well as the rest of the Day family. But movie adaptations are not the book after all and I admit it is not fair to expect them to be the same. However, even dressed dowdy, Charlize Theron is still model-pretty, and I think they should have nodded to that a couple times in the script and had someone mention it.

Anyway not the worst. Just wish Charlize would have starred in Sharp Objects if they ever make a movie out of that as she would have been an awesome Camille.

..... And I agree the angel of death was kind of an eye-roll-inducing plot device also, in the book and the movie! I like Gillian Flynn as an author but that seemed a little too convenient. And the movie did drop Lyle and the Kill Club kind of abruptly, which played more of a role in the book as well.

A very good movie to me.
PS: Nicholas Hoult spoke with an American accent!!!

I thought this movie was just awful. It had promise but even the notable actors couldn't save it. The story is utterly ridiculous. Sometimes that doesn't matter, but it does here because the writing was just terrible.