I'm contemplating whether or not to go see the film - and usually, when I'm on the fence, I read an online synopsis to see how the story turns out. Could anyone, in effect, SPOIL the movie for me? :)
No! Go see it. It is good and worth your time.
shareI had some questions after watching the movie. Read some reviews of the books, and it seems the movie left out some important points from the book. May start reading Roth again, however. He's won many awards.
The movie had a great potential totally wasted! After the premise, the sceenplay fell flat ! Logan Lerman (Marcus) is great ! But, only a great screenplay could make this movie successful ! I was very deceit ! The good subject was treated superficially !
shareMarcus (the protagonist) dies in the Korean War. Even though he did not get drafted initially by going to college, he is expelled from his college because he paid someone to attend chapel in his place. This then caused him to be drafted and sent into combat. We learn that Marcus has died at the very beginning of the film, so the story is almost entirely told in flashbacks.
shareYou left out the part that really knocked my socks off. The old woman at the beginning...can't say more because not sure how to black out part of my post.
shareYou black out all or part of your post by clicking on "Spoiler" at the top of the body of your post. Then you insert the remarks you want blacked out between the the two HTML tags. The result will be your post with part of it blacked out.
shareWe learn that Marcus died at the very beginning of the film.
I heard him say that he was dead DURING the movie. (When he was narrating about still thinking about people even though he was dead and pondering why this was...) I was a bit confused about this but at the end of the movie it made sense. In the first scene it is the young Greenberg kid who is killed. He is killed by gunfire from the Korean man. In the end, Marcus is killed by bayonet in battle with the Korean man.
I think that Olivia did spend time in the mental hospital but went on to lead a life and marry whomever "Mr. Andersen" is. When I first saw the first scene I thought she was an older woman in an institution but the life in her eyes threw me off. Now that I have seen the end, I think she is elderly and ill but not necessarily in an institution.
I think she is in her own home at the end of her life as evidenced by the wallpaper she chose which has the roses that she brought to Marcus and put in the pitcher.
at the very beginning of the film it is an other person that is dead. Marcus is at his house. But the twist, at least i think so, is that anybody can be that dead person because of every action one takes - as Marcus tells us in the narration. Mistakes and decisions happen and it is possible that you end up dead prematurely because of them. But what the film tells us is that he loved her and that stands out to him more than his consequence. And so did old Olivia - seen by her tearing up to the wallpaper with the flowers - the only thing left to for her in that mental state.
shareSo the old woman at the end of the movie was Olivia? What was wrong with her? I know she tried to kill herself which hints at depression. But I keep getting the impression that it was more than that.
shareShe went mad
shareShe got pregnent from her own father. That explains the suicide attempt and how quick she was with getting sexual with Marcus. Remember how her dad dropped her off in the middle of the night, and gave her money? When Marcus promised his mother not to see her anymore, i think that was it for her. She had the nervous breakdown and never recovered.
shareYeah, I see what you're saying but you are getting mixed up a little.
There was talk of pregnancy between Marcus and the Dean but that was after the suicide attempt.
Did Marcus actually promise his mother he would never see her again? He just let her talk.
It appeared to me that his mother told her to beat it, as Marcus watched on from his Hospital room. That's the last time we see Olivia
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go see the movie. the imdb makes it a point to tell that young lerman is jewish and his family is jewish. i don't remember seeing anyone else's religious background being used in the bio, except people who have gone into the clergy after leaving the business, like dolores hart, for example. does this diminish young lerman's acting ability because he wasn't acting too much? i don't think so, because there is nothing in california that resembles newark new jersey in the 50's. go see the damn movie or wait for the dvd to hit the library or netflix. if you read the book, you know the ending of the book. one key thing about philip roth books is that you can't tell what actually happened in roth's life and what he researched so well as to make it seem autobiographical.
shareI didn't think it was quite as clear cut as people are making out - I don't think you can say for sure that Olivia has been in an institution all her life, she may well be in an old folks' home at the end as opposed to a mental healthcare institution, I took it that she'd had a full life with a husband etc but was obviously still deeply attached to Marcus or affected by their relationship. Also I don't think Marcus is definitely dead - in the book he is narrating from hospital, high on morphine from the wounds. This makes more sense to me than him narrating from the afterlife. Or he could well be pondering her as an old man himself. All a bit Jacob's Ladder! The film really resonated with me though, wasn't sure about it as it went along but now think it's one of the best of the year, as powerful as Carol and Doubt.
shareIn the book, he narrates the entire story in his mind while on morphine. He thinks he is already dead. Then he dies for real and the narration stops.