I'm sorry I read the book first

I watched this film last night on TCM, which was the only other time I've seen it since it was first released. I was hoping that the passage of time and faded memories of the book would help me enjoy it more. But it didn't, I'm very sorry to say!

After seeing it again I think John Irving probably did the best job possible adapting the screenplay from his novel. Making it into a feature film necessitated cutting out a lot, but he handled it well (and won an Oscar for it). IMO the main fault of the film lies elsewhere.

Toby Maguire was miscast and misdirected. I hate to say it but he was totally uninspiring in the role. Homer Wells was indeed a quiet, passive person. But that's not to say he was passionless. Candy was the love of his life and they were intimate for a 15-year period IIRC. Maybe if a different actor had been cast then the screenplay could've covered a longer span of time than it did, capturing more of the spirit of the novel. It wouldn't have required elaborate makeup to age Homer, Candy, Dr. Larch, et al. to cover that amount of time. But Toby Maguire's voice and lack of passion left so much to be desired... and Charlize Theron is gorgeous but it was distracting that she's bigger than him AND Paul Rudd. Maybe that's one reason why there seemed to be a lack of chemistry between them.

And speaking of voices, I love Michael Caine and thought his acting was fine (he won the Best Supporting Oscar for the role) EXCEPT for his peculiar accent in the film. He just couldn't pull off transforming his very distinctive voice to that of a New Englander and it was a big distraction for me.

The art direction, photography and musical score were fine. Overall I think the film was well done. But to anyone who loves it, please consider reading the novel! It's epic. It's evocative -- you can almost smell and taste the apples and feel the crisp autumn air when you're reading it. Oddly, the abortion theme hardly registered with me so I won't get into any of the political discussions about the issue on this board. The story has much more depth and dimension to it than just that, and is engagingly and beautifully told. Read it, you won't be sorry!