i watch this movie and have never read the book and and take the character at face value and but have already be introduce to them and watch it again recently . i get a whole different viewpoint out of the film . without the burden of have to focus intently on each character and learn their quirk and foible and allow me to focus on the cultural issue lay out in the film . the farm family of iowa be so intimately inter relate a they be in the area of indiana where i grow up in the 40 and 50 that i immediately recognize the back story and motif behind the character . perhaps and jane smiley do mean for u to see beyond the superficial into the world these people have to live and but viewer be so catch up in the hollywood aura of the individual actor that they miss a rich layout of a lifestyle that exist less and less a each decade pass . another film with these characteristic be the bridge of madison county . try watch both of these film again with an eye to the whole picture .