I haven’t seen Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You yet, but I’ve noticed something in the trailer and with the actors that Faenza has chosen to play the characters from Peter Cameron’s young adult book that some are calling the modern-day Catcher in the Rye). I’m a little afraid that he’s taken the edge away, and made it a little too maudlin. We’ll see.
Roy Menarini, in an review from MYmovies.it has his own interesting observations – take a look.
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You – From Book To Movie
by Roy Menarini
In making Peter Cameron’s book into a movie, Roberto Faenza has made some curious choices. For example, he has reduced the relationship between the psychologist (played by Lucy Liu in the movie) and the protagonist, spending their time together power walking instead of in the therapist’s office. Moreover, even if James’ homosexuality is evident in the movie as in the book, his admission of his sexuality is left out of the movie. ( Cheri’s note: Curious to me, however, because I’ve read the book and I don’t remember James coming out in it, so I don’t know what Menarini is talking about.)
Even more interesting is Faeza’s omission of James’ “life coach” insisting he talk about how he felt about September 11 since his school was located across from the twin towers. James refused to respond, and he’s reticent in the film, too, but even though Faenza recognized the usefulness of the voiceover in other scenes, he forgets that on the screen it’s harder to show the reticence. At the movies, the viewer sees everything, and if the characters hesitate or lie, it has to be shown. Why has Faenza eliminated the reference to the tragedy of the World Trade Center?
In the book, Cameron has let it fall in a subtle way, letting the reader decide its importance. I, for example, have decided to consider it extremely important, believing that it’s the heart of the book where we find the hidden reason for James’ problems. The film, however, doesn’t seem to agree. Rather, and maybe it’s thanks to a film’s ability to bring a story to life, it seems to want to be an X-ray of a fragile society and a wounded Big Apple in the 2000s where terrorism was followed by economic crisis.
The adults that James observes are, it’s true, are stereotypes from American literature (immature mother, narcissistic father, scatterbrained step-father, an absent sister, an alternative grandmother and an atypical therapist). Evidently, Faenza, who has for years tried to bring Catcher in the Rye to the big screen, has emphasized, without saying it outright, the similarities between James and Salinger’s protagonist, projecting into the light the uncertainty of Obama America, without naming September 11 as Cameron has. It’s a sign that interpreting literature, today as always, continues to surprise those who analyze it.
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