Great book, OK film.

Rating: Null/10 (11 June 2004)

Dennis Lehane's novel is a really great book, one of the best I've read. While reading it, I also realized that they would never be able to transfer this to the big screen intact. What we see in the film, although very faithful to the text, is just the surface of the story, and the characters.
In order to get to know more about the relationship between the characters, as well as their motivation for the choices they make, the film would have to be twice as long and have a lot of voice over. The lack of the above makes a great book an OK film.
As far as the film goes, it's pretty solid overall. The acting is good, but nothing fantastic. There are some exceptions, though. The unknown actors in the beginning of the film are just bad. It's like they just picked some people off the streets and gave them some lines to read. And then there's Tim Robbins. He has (probably) the toughest role to play, but he cannot pull it off. He's going for a subtle, almost underplayed performance, but somehow manages to overplay it instead, absolutely not Oscar material.
The direction isn't bad, but it's not very exciting either. The film looks great, as they've really managed to give it the same kind of bleakness as in the book. Generally, it's good drama/ thriller with an extraordinary cast, that you wish you could have got more out of. I probably would have liked the film better if I hadn't read the book already.