Patricia Highsmith’s CRY OF THE OWL —“Why It Had to Go Wrong”

Cry of the Owl  –  Jamie Thraves, director, 2009

JOHN: I have read a lot of Highsmith’s books (including her Ripley novels) and including this one from about ten years ago. Hollywood has loved her things ever since Hitchcock’s Strangers on the Train, but I see a problem—not with the particular characters or plots—but rather in the difference between a book and a movie. This well executed, terrible movie is a perfect example. When I read her, I am the central character making, at first, very excusable choices that ultimately lead to a certain amorality. We are backed into a corner and hardly knew it was happening. “Thank God,” you say, “this was only a book.” But in a movie or DVD we are an audience watching someone else go through this. There is distance right from the beginning and the result is we can easily dismiss these oddballs. Perhaps this is expecting too much, but other movies work on their own terms and her books are so intimate and convincing it is a shame they lose something in translation to the screen , but this is based on a difference in mediums not production values or acting skills. 

GO, (1 GO out of 4)

SPANKY: I agree with John (for once) but rather than waist time repeating what he has said, let me give you some guidelines Patricia Highsmith, herself, suggested to writers.

1. Have two major (possibly conflicting ) ideas within each peace
2. Begin toward the end.
3. Emotion is key.
4. Most books change ¾ of the way through.
5. First paragraph should be short.
6. First sentence—action, movement without the reasons for the movement.
7. The first chapter establishes lines of action.
8. Use dialogue sparingly to make it more dramatic.
9. Authors attract material they need when they are writing the novel.
10. See one chapter beyond the one you’re writing.
11. Does the reader care about the character? 

In the case of this movie, I think the viewer understands and empathizes with the character (#11) but I don’t think he or she cares in the same way as if that viewer were the character. And the ironic twist at the end is a poor cancelation prize. 

BARK (1 BARK out of 4)