Movie compared to the book (heavy book spoilers)

If you've read the original novel did you think it was done well in film? I definitely think it captured the gritty hopelessness of alcoholism that's in the book but there were some changes annoyed me a bit.

1) In the book it's Sera who leaves Al, not the other way round. I don't really get why they switched it, but then again Yuri was quite a different character to who Al was in the book. I just liked the way it played out in the book better where Ben and Sera started seeing each other whilst she was still technically tied to Al and it's her decision in the end to cut all ties.

2) Ben was a bit more heartless in the film than in the book. In the bar scene he offers to buy the guy a drink as well as the girl to calm the situation down albeit he still comes out with the comment that gets him battered straight after in the book anyway. Also it's hard to get across in film I know but the book had Ben struggling a lot more, trying to time his drinks so he'd be functioning for Sera and not just comatose all the time. There's brief mention of it when they're on the couch together but that's in the book anyway. In the book Ben and Sera have a lot more playful banter together, it's not either full on lust or impending doom like in the film.

Those changes are the only ones that bother me off the top of my head (and not overly bothered but thought i'd get some book/film discussion going) but overall it was a pretty good adaptation from book to film. It's a fairly short read and I think they did the best they could with it. The timings are off with Sera's life as all the bad stuff happens before she meets Ben in the book, plus the ending is changed slightly but the rape scene being near the end of the film fitted in nice cinematically for the tragic end.