MovieChat Forums > Prozac Nation (2003) Discussion > Not as good as the book, but not without...

Not as good as the book, but not without merit.

posted 18 years ago by jennygrattan
5 replies | jump to latest

It's probably a difficult task to turn a best-selling autobiography into a movie without some serious air brushing. For example: I HATED the movie Girl Interrupted simply because it strayed so far from the book. You really have to read all of Elizibeth Wurtzels' books to grasp that she is in fact a human being. Life is hard; life is even harder when you *know* that you're crazy. If you read through her books very closely, you can see how she realizes and despises her tendency to come off as a needy or an *beep* Also: her musical tastes were way better than Emo.

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] Samantha_Doll 18 years ago

What's odd is- I loved the movie 'Girl, Interrupted' but didn't care too much for the book. I thought the movie was more fleshed out and definitely more interesting. Which usually isn't the case, ofcourse. Usually the book is better.
I wonder if that's only because I saw the movie first?

[–] Mean_Green 18 years ago

Well.. The thing about Girl, Interrupted, was that the book was true, and the movie wasn't.

The thing about Prozac Nation was that the author goes on for three hundred pages mourning her horrible depression and I acutally liked the movie far better than the book because the for some reason the tone of the book made me want to dislike the author, whereas seeing it unfold without hearing some of the comments made the 'author' more likable.

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[–] walkers-1 18 years ago

I thought the movie was equally as good as the book. I didn't have much sympathy for her in the book but I did in the movie.

The main think I got from the book was how unlikeable a depressed person becomes. I thought Elizabeth Wurtzel was brave to write so honestly. I got a feeling for why she suffered from self-hatred.

The movie allowed me to feel much more sympathy for Wurtzel. I think it was due to Jessical Lange and Christina Ricci's acting talents. The movie showed just how complex the relationship between them was. It's clear that her mother loves her and wants her to be happy, but also that she has directly influenced her emotional instability by harbouring so much anger and sometimes turning her daughter's problems into her own problems.

I had very low expectations from the movie and was pleasantly surprised.

[–] ichinatsuno-1 18 years ago

The book is very good, the film is OK. (IMO)

Prozac Nation is quite a good book. Even though it can be depressing if you focus too much on the suffering and not on the intelligent, dynamic, funny way in which the authour bravely tells her life, it is hard to make a equally great film, even having actors as charismatic as Ricci.

As for "Girl, Interrupted", I found it just a written testimony, not a good piece of work by an author. That´s why I did prefer the film.
There is a great difference from Wurtzel and Prozac Nation.