How Was That Sandwich Of Yours?

http://reflectionsfromthebellcurve.blogspot.com/2015/07/so-long-seth.html

Good news first. Over the past two months I have kept my resolve (see above) from July 23; movie consumption is way down. The less encouraging (if not bad) news is the few films I've since watched at home have largely been ones I'd seen previously. Monotony in the diet, you say?

Not entirely. Re-watching Nobody's Fool (1994) a few weeks ago was a wholly delicious twenty one year sandwich. Saw the film upon its release; I love Paul Newman almost as much as most of the women I know. Then in 2010 I read Richard Russo's excellent 1993 novel of the same name. Then, a few days ago, I renewed the magic via watching the movie a second time.

And, the geek abides. Earlier today, I read my 2010 book journal entry on "Nobody's Fool". I also returned briefly to my underlined copy of the novel and compared my end notes on Russo's wonderfully drawn upstate New York characters with those depicted in the film while it was still fresh on my mind. My verdict on this sandwich and it's geeky aftermath - The book is better (duh!) but screenwriter and director Robert Benton nailed the essence of Russo's novel. In particular, the hapless main character Sully and his landlord Beryl - Newman and Jessica Tandy in the film - are brilliantly realized. Benton was also wise to use the author's dialogue, verbatim, in his movie. Dialogue is arguably Russo's greatest gift.

What's the verdict on your most recent sandwich? What book was it? Did the movie have the same name? Was your sandwich like mine, i.e. movie-book-movie? In order to vary my diet, think I'll switch now to book-movie-book. Hope that sandwich is as good as this last one.