Turning a beloved book into a movie can be tricky in Hollywood, especially if it is a story about real life, families, and heartache. You often overhear people (including myself) discussing the film and saying "oh the book was so much better", or complaining that the casting was all wrong. It is hard for people to let go of the visions they had in their head at the time and the emotions they had while reading the book. I am delighted to say this is not the case with the new film THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU. I enjoyed the book but loved the movie.Warner Bros. Pictures invited me to an early screening of the film and then a lunch and interview with author and screenwritter Jonathan Tropper. The casting was spot on. Seeing the ad prompted me to get the book, so I knew going into reading it that Jason Bateman was Judd, Tina Fey was his sister Wendy, Corey Stoll, who I loved in House of Cards, was the older brother Paul, and Jane Fonda was their mother. Their performances are outstanding. They give these troubled characters heart and you can feel their sweetness and real love in the movie. The supporting characters are amazing as well, I cried every time Timothy Olyphant was on screen and I think I dated Adam Driver’s character Paul.
The film and book tell the story of what happens when these four grown siblings, bruised and banged up by their respective adult lives, are forced to return to their childhood home and live under the same roof together for a week after their father passes away. There is screaming, there is crying, there are laughs and hugs. Memories and emotions get un-earthed and life changes are made.
After the screening of the film, Warner Bros. Pictures hosted us to a lunch and interview with author and screenwriter of THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU, Jonathan Tropper. Jonathan talked to us about how he first started screenwriting to just finance his novel writing, but that he has really grown to love it. He still considers being a novelist as his day job, now he just has this really cool other job.
I asked him if he found it more difficult to do a screenplay for his own work, or to adapt someone else's work. And his answer surprised me. He said that he “much prefers adapting someone else's. I've only done it once before. But I know that now, having written scripts based on three of my books. It's kind of like doing surgery on your own child.
And you don't really want to do it. But on the other hand, you don't necessarily want to sit there and watch someone else do it. So, you're almost doing it preemptively to not let someone else do it. But in a perfect world, I would just as soon write original scripts, not adapt anything."
We also discussed how hard it is to get movies made and studios behind real family movies like this . He shared with us that it took a long time to get this project off the ground and that it went through a few different incarnations over the years before coming to this. But how when he looked back it all was how it is supposed to be and still very surreal.
