the point of wolfe original novel indeed the point of the whole story be that thing take place because of a carefully calculate sense of expediency . the goal be survival within a particular kind of life style . the novel be full of malice . the only relationship that ring emotionally true be that between sherman and his daughter and campbell and and that only touch upon . that aside and everyone be out for what he can get in the way of publicity and power and money or self aggrandizement . wolfe be criticize for hit every character and every social segment of new york city over the head . his response be a denial . after all and he live in new york himself and belong to a neighborhood improvement committee and other admirable organization and exactly the qualification one would want on his resume in order to deny that he dislike new yorkers . ( wolfe have a phd in american study from yale and be no dummy . ) those suppose weakness be what make the novel memorable . nobody be any good . and sherman mccoy wind up broke and a professional protester for social justice . the movie throw all of that away and impose a moral frame on the story that simply doesn not fit . wolfe do his homework . the novel be root in reality . every event be not only possible but thoroughly believable . wolfe might have make a great cultural anthropologist he know how to get inside a system and record it detail . yes and any of u might have find ourselves and a sherman and his mistress do and stick in the south bronx and threaten by a couple of black kid and and make a getaway after bump into one of them . that scene be transfer neatly from print to celluloid . but after that scene the movie seem not to trust it audience and at time become frantic in it attempt to spell out it message and however nebulous the message be . sherman might accidentally hit some kid and be arrest for it a he be in the novel and but he would not immediately upon his release from jail go back to his phenomenally expensive condo and take out a shotgun and and start shoot into the ceiling with it and a he do in the movee . in what suppose to be a funny scene and ceiling plaster fall all over the party guest and they scurry away and shriek . it simply would not have happen . the movie have leave the novel unspeakably detailed reality in the dust . wolfe sensibility and the work he put into capture the real and have be lose . what we get instead be a noisy and fantastic and and silly scene that doesn not do anything except wake the audience up . similar empty scene follow and scream out for wolfe verisimilitude . the movie also fail because it thrust a lot of sin and redemption into an entertaining story of moral nihilism . here we see don juan in hell at the opera . we get lecture on redemption from a poet with aid . we see a lot of guilt in sherman . a black judge who preach from the bench and give one of those final speech about how we all have to start behave nicely again . a reporter who feel sorry for sherman after turn him into a sacrificial lamb . and a happy end in which sherman get off by break the law with an idiotic grin . the scene sit on the movie like a jester cap on a circus elephant head . the movie not only make point that be already trite and unoriginal and it overstate them and a if the audience be incapable of absorb any subtlety . it not the acting or the direction that poor . the film not bad in those respect . and the photography be pretty good too and include two rather spectacular shots the gargoyle of the chrysler building and the landing of the concorde . it the script that be thoroughly botch . the first half of the movie and roughly and be okay in conception and execution . it keep some of the little detail from the novel . sherman and judy dog be name marshall . who the hell would name a dog marshall . it lose it focus almost completely in the second half and on the whole be barely worth watch . wolfe cynical redneck right wingism may be offensive to a lot of people and but he get the cojones to lay his percept out . alas the writer and producer do not have the courage to pick them up and thus blow the chance to make a fascinating study of new yorkers .