The film never let the audience breathe, instead it just shot everything at us in rapid succession. I feel like the movie should have been 2+ hours long.
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DEAR MODS: PLZ REDUCE MY POSTING QUOTA. 30 MIN IS WAY TOO MUCH.
I agree wholeheartedly. Just saw this movie since it's now on Netflix. Was curious for a while since it was one of my favorite books growing up, but I held off until now since the previews didn't look promising.
And, yes, the rapid pacing was my first thought. Although I don't know if it's because I'm very familiar with the book. Movies based off books generally seem fast-paced in comparison. I think it's because books are able to go into the minds of the characters, which takes pages, versus films who have to communicate pages of nuance visually through expressions and actions.
That said, this adaptation didn't seem like it took too much time showing just how regulated their society is. In fact - just went on Netflix - the Ceremony of Advancement starts off just 7 minutes into the movie! The book spends a decent chunk in the beginning talking about Jonas riding around hearing all the announcements (to show the order imposed) and visiting his friends at their "work" (like Fiona at the senior citizen center). More importantly, it sets up the Ceremony pretty well via dinner table conversations with his parents where Jonas asks questions and they share their experiences when they were Nines, Elevens, etc. Movies are about 2 hours these days and this one was 1:30. I concur that they could've used that extra half hour with more exposition.