to the audience.
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mmichaels-71660 — 9 years ago(April 12, 2016 08:27 AM)
The character of Rob breaks the fourth wall in the novel too. It's can be a great storytelling technique that allows for a lot of narration without drowning the story with voice over.
Not every movie does it well but if you've read the novel this movie gets it right. Rob breaks the fourth wall so much in the novel I don't see how they could have stayed faithful to the book without doing it in the movie. -
Naughty-God — 9 years ago(October 25, 2016 03:38 PM)
I didn't mind the direct-to-audience narration but I have to say that I really can't stand the 'breaking the fourth wall' description because to me it implies that it's an innovation in film making when in reality it's just an extension of what you see in many theater dramas. Talking to the audience precedes the art of film making so in many respects all you're really seeing is a theater performance played out on film/video, and while I think many films succeed using this method it's really not "breaking" any walls, it's just taking short cuts, narratively speaking.
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drbgoodblues-11682 — 9 years ago(October 13, 2016 12:11 AM)
As usual, Barry, you are right
Barry: Holy beep What the beep is that?
Dick: It's the new Belle and Sebastian
Rob: It's a record we've been listening to and enjoying, Barry.
Barry: Well, that's unfortunate, because it sucks ass. -
blindvias-071407 — 9 years ago(January 15, 2017 12:55 PM)
The movie was trying to capture the essence of the narration in the book. But perhaps the creators should have thought twice about their strategy. The movie still didn't convey all the idiosyncrasies of Rob, his mother and all of his female acquaintances we read about in the book, going all the way back to grade school. That probably isn't possible with any movie. Should the screenplay have been crafted with a different strategy that still succeeded on it's own merits without on screen narration? Perhaps. However Roger Ebert gave the movie a 100 rating, so clearly the movie found significant acceptance.