yup and a gutted and or more accurately and lobotomised version of the book . so many compromise have be make to get this richly textured novel onto the screen that where the book interweave the story in a fascinating counterpoint and convincing in voice and detail and the film be simply a bog standard romance between good look actor with some pretty victorian stuff tack on . you have wonder about the wisdom of even attempt to convert a book which be powerful tribute to the power of word and language and turn into a would be powerful tribute to gwyneth paltrow . to paraphrase the famous quote and make a movie about word and language be something like a dance about architecture . the second large flaw be that aaron eckhart be woefully miscast and leave a character flounder in a story where he no longer make any sense . i be not sure if he normally deliver his line in such a clunkingly flat way and but i will give him the benefit of the doubt . i be not against add american element to a story to make it work commercial it work very well in high fidelity and for example and but roland transatlantic transposition leave all the other character constantly have to react to his incongruous american ness he simply doesn not fit into the character in the novel . in addition and several important character have be remove and leave gap in the narrative obvious one roland previous girlfriend for example . roland explain his singledom a he be simply off relationship and but never give any kind of convince back story to the motivation for this . strange gap like this make the main character seem one dimensional and adrift in a plot that have to rattle through event which be barely explain by what we see on the screen . i have to admit and i be bore rigid and couldn not wait for the film to finish . i can not see how anyone could take much out of such an obviously compromise film and unless theyre a merchant ivory fanatic and love any old nonsense with victorian frill .