To be really disappointed by the film of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society?

[Hippee]

I loved this book. I went to see the film last night, knowing that it was a risk, but I could not believe how much had been changed for no apparent reason. I thought the casting was pretty good. It could have been a fantastic film, BUT ... major characters, that actually affected the storyline, had been completely missed out and other characters had been changed, so that they didn't resemble the original - never mind the changes to the actual story.

I went to see it last night, after reading the book on Saturday.

I wasn’t disappointed, I expected it to have been trimmed, but it was missing some key characters and narrative.

There were a lot of scenes that could have been cut in favour of narrative, I thought. Too many sweeping vistas of cliffs and protracted scenes of Juliet typing. However, the evacuation scenes were succinct and had my friend sobbing. I was very taken by the scene in which Juliet flashes back to her bombed out flat, thought that was excellent.

Overall, I thought it was charming. The acting was good. (Even if it was slightly “Downton reunited”.) Penelope Wilton and Tom Courteney were very good and I thought the young boy playing Eli was fantastic, he’s definitely one to watch out for. Dawsey was dreamy!!

I still haven’t seen it but it is proving very popular here in Guernsey, particularly with the older generation who remember how Guernsey used to be back in the 40s/50s. They put on a special preview for Occupation survivors and they loved it.

We saw it last night and DH loved it (he's a self-confessed soppy bloke when it comes to films) but I wondered how much of the book had been lost in translation, having not read it first. Some of the character development seemed a bit... quick. I was also surprised by the local accent - I always assumed Guernsey would have a faintly French twang but it turns out it's actually an outpost of Coronation Street. Who knew!

Disclaimer: I remarked on all this to DH on the way out, and he looked surprised and said, 'But you were crying nearly all the way through!' I was. But some of that was for the pig and the poor horse having to lug all that gin around.

I think this film was aimed totally a box office receipts. The book has so much humour, but also deals with the very dark side of the occupation sensitively and compassionately. A smaltzy love story will probably.put more bums on seats.

I think, handled well, it would make a terrific tv series.

I agree with you izzy - I think it'd have made a much better short television series because there is a lot going on with the back story of the occupation and its effect on the bookclub, as well as the central love story. Condensing it into two hours meant some of the development happened a bit quickly.

I'm going to read the book now though!