I loved the book, but I was disappointed by the movie ...

Rating: 4/10 (1 January 2007)

I think the movie was too long - the material could have been contained in a picture with length of under two hours in my opinion. The movie was following the book too closely, which didn't work out very well. The retrospective sequences were short and fast and didn't create the effect they created in the book. Also, the scenes were mostly not well lit, which exhausted the viewers.
I would have expected more action sequences - at least that was the feeling the book left me with. The time-span of the story is very short yet the movie was as long as movies, that cover lifetimes.
Another disappointment for me were the changes in pace between the three story levels in the movie. The three levels were the current events, the retrospective material, and the historical explanations in the form of dry conversations. Those were irregularly dispersed throughout the film and introduced drastic changes in pace.
I liked the fact that the French characters spoke in French. I thought Hanks was a perfect cast for the part and I was most impressed by Paul Bettany.