😭All of Us Strangers Book vs Movie review
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- Опубліковано 19 чер 2024
- Andrew Haigh's movie starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal is based on the surreal book by Taichi Yamada about a man connecting with his past. The book and movie have some big differences, find out what was changed and which I prefer!
www.esquire.com/uk/culture/fi...
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00:00 intro
00:56 Adam/Hideo
03:06 his parents
10:56 Harry/Kei
14:06 book ending
18:21 movie ending
22:58 processing grief and trauma
25:03 book vs movie
certain aspects of the book reminded me of the old Twilight Zone episode Next Stop Willoughby. Has anyone else seen that one?? Also, Adam's childhood home in the movie is actually the director's real childhood home!
i’m still emotionally & physically unwell after watching the film
Seriously! So emotionally draining.
It took me weeks to summon the courage to watch the movie for a second time so I could try to figure it all out.
I've seen the film a couple of times and it's one of the rare movies that stayed with me for days.
A theory I've come across is the possibility that Adam and Harry died in a fire at the beginning of the film (hinted at with the fire alarm that goes off in the empty building that "doesn't even have a security guard")...the building burned and they were both mortally harmed. Harry remained in the building; like the father he resembles he dies immediately. Adam left the building perhaps he was found and was taken out and brought to hospital like his mother.
Like his mother, Adam lingers and this is when he encounters his parents and go on that healing journey. It's as though they all met in purgatory until they worked through their trauma.
The club scene is chaotic and ends with smoke and fear. This is once again a reference to the fire that killed the two men. The final scene is them coming together again...two lonely souls that perhaps didn't succeed emotionally on this realm but they now can forge a relationship in the next reality they fade into.
Oh interesting, thanks for sharing! Yeah this is definitely a movie that sticks with you in so many ways!
A wonderful explanation and I’m with you!
The film is a masterpiece that very soon will be considered a classic.
Definitely
I believe that director/screenwriter Andrew Haigh said that Taichi Yamada encouraged him to do his own personal version of the story. (And btw, "Haigh" rhymes wiuth "vague": the final "G" is pronounced!)
just watched the movie and was looking for a video like this ❤
😊
Harry and Adam end up facing each other - then (if I remember correctly) Adam says to Harry "it's time" and Harry turns around. He then lies there just as Adam found him (dead). In my opinion, that's how Adam "let him go".
Ohhh, that's a good observation!
I was just going to post this- Harry's final position with Adam on the bed is the position he died in.
Thank you for such detailed analysis and comparison! Loved it
Glad you liked it!
I appreciate the film's departure from the book's narrative. While the book leans towards the supernatural, the movie delves into a poignant exploration of one individual's journey through grief and trauma. Furthermore, I'm relieved that the film refrained from offering explanations, as it would have forced a binary interpretation of the character's experiences as either insanity or the supernatural, robbing the narrative of its nuanced ambiguity.
Also, I gotta comment on the age difference between the two men. Paul Mescal is almost 20 years younger than Andrew Scott. But the chemistry is just so good between the two men that you don’t even really notice their ages.
Yes! I definitely agree!
I agree with your observations about the film on all points - I love it. I enjoyed your comparison with the novel. I've subscribed. Thank you!
Thanks for commenting and subscribing 😃
I was thinking in the beginning 'don't eat that' when he was going through the leftovers in his fridge... For me, they both died that night. And as the story unfolds, Adam finds peace with his past and he can comfort Harry as they both fade away as well....
i know i need to stop watching these all of us strangers videos and reviews but they’re so good 😭 great review btw! ty for taking the time 🧡
Thank you! And I'm the same way, when I love a book or movie I'll binge a ton of videos about it!
its so sad taichi yamada (to our knowledge) never got to see the adaptation 😭
Yeah that is sad if he didn't get to see it!
actually, he did get to see the completed film right before he passed away. unfortunately the article is only in Japanese, and if I translate roughly even though he at that time was already not able to speak or verbally express himself, he stayed awake for the whole runtime of the film, according to his family.
bunshun.jp/articles/-/70203?page=3
I’m not sure if he was dead all along in the movie because he orders food from a server at the restaurant. Right?
That's true...
Thank you for your insightful analysis. Consider me your newest subscriber; your review was truly captivating. I'm also inspired to read the book you mentioned. As for the movie, it was a visually stunning experience. Regarding Adam, he defies our expectations in a remarkable way.His parents even remarked on the beauty of Harry, a man with a deeply melancholic countenance. They urged him to look after Harry, hinting at a connection between them. Harry's reaction to seeing his parents suggests a startling revelation: his own demise. Upon returning home, the truth weighs heavily on him, especially as he converses with Adam. However, Adam's kindness extends beyond the grave, providing Harry with the closure he needs. This act not only grants Harry peace but also liberates Adam from any lingering turmoil. It's heartening to know that someone cared for Harry in his final moments, sparing him from a lonely end.
Additionally, when Adam interacted with the waitress, it became evident that he was alive; her comments about his food order and her inability to see his parents confirmed this. Conversely, when Harry was forced to visit Adams parents, he realized his own death and fled in confusion. This led him to seek solace in alcohol once more. Upon returning to his flat and encountering Adam, Harry's despair is palpable as he questions why nobody found him. Adam's simple yet profound response, 'I found you,' underscores the depth of his compassion and the significance of his role in Harry's journey. Adam's parents also emphasize the importance of caring for Harry, as nobody else had found him. This poignant exchange highlights the transformative power of empathy and the profound impact of human connection, even in the face of death.
Thanks for subscribing! And thank you so much for sharing your thoughts on the movie, I love your interpretation! I think the movie has a more uplifting and positive ending than the quote I shared from another article. Though it is still sad due to Harry's death. Your insight on the ending is beautiful 😌
@@WhytheBookWins Thank you for taking the time to create such a wonderful video for us and for encouraging us to explore and read book. I'm pleased that you enjoyed my interpretation. I believe the director provided a clue about Harry's death with the bed scene, where Adam is seen in his pajamas lying in bed with his parents, engaging in an intimate conversation with his mother. Suddenly, Harry's arm taps him on the shoulder, and he finds himself with Harry in bed while his parents vanish, indicating a transition to the spirit world. Adam then asks him why he is there. This scene also serves as a reference to the idea that our parents are often our first loves, and the way we love them influences how we love our partners. This connection is evident in why all four characters briefly appear in the bed scene. Adam's parents couldn't find peace because they hadn't completed their task. Adam, for instance, wasn't able to say goodbye to his mother when she was still alive for a 3 days, which haunted him, preventing him from allowing himself to love again due to the fear of experiencing unbearable suffering. By assisting him in finding closure and unburdening his heart, they also help Harry, who died alone, longing for love and companionship. It's as much about Harry as it is about Adam. It's heart-wrenching when Harry asks Adam why nobody found him, meaning nobody loved or cared for him, and Adam's response, expressing that he found and cares for Harry, is painfull. Adam sings a song to Harry to shield him from loneliness and silence, helping him finding peace. Adam, now no longer afraid like he was at twelve years old, has matured and protects Harry as a parent would. Even earlier, in the restaurant scene, the roles are reversed as Adam assumes the role of protector, reassuring his parents about their deaths and shielding them from worry by suggesting that their deaths were quick and painless, symbolizing his transition to adulthood as he takes care of them like vulnerable children.
@@WhytheBookWins And based on your analysis, the book sound fantastic too, so I'm excited to get my hands on, and dive into reading. It seems like the director has done an incredible job, especially in this instance. Perhaps movies, being more human-centric, hit home for all of us, touching on a topic we'll all inevitably face: the loss of our parents. In a movie, it's portrayed in a more human way, whereas in a book, as you've described it, it might lean more towards fantasy or even horror, with at least one ghost having malevolent intentions. But here, in the movie, it's all about love and lacks the supernatural aspect, at least not prominently.
The imagery of decorating the Christmas tree was beautifully directed.
You see Adam on his knees looking up at his parents with the expression of a wide eyed child, filled with joy and wonderment at the magic of Christmas. Looking up to his parents in anticipation of putting the Angel on top of the tree… and then there’s a close up of his mother singing [paraphrasing] 🎶”Maybe I didn’t love you🎶, quite as often as I should have. 🎶Maybe I didn’t hold you🎶all those cold and lonely nights🎶” Those lyrics are haunting. The thoughts of a dead mother who realizes she didn’t do her best at getting to know her child. She feels the devastating regret that she knows she will never be able to repair.
To me, one of the most devastating scenes is after Adam finds Harry’s body and then Harry discovers he is dead. He had to ask, “I’m in there, aren’t I?” He didn’t want Adam to see him as he was when he died. “WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY FIND ME?!” This my heart implode.
Harry tells him, “you are not in there. You are IN HERE (my heart.) With me.”
Then he tells Harry, let go up to my apartment.
To me, this is a metaphor of “let’s go up to his version of Heaven.” They are in Adam’s bed and Harry relaxed his body into the same position that his body was in when he physically died, and released his last breath. Then Harry comfortably releases his soul into the universe.
This is where conjecture comes in… Is Adam dead, too? It is possible that Adam died the night that he took ketamine (and maybe too much) at the bar with Harry. That was a BIG trip he went on and we know that drug is deadly, especially in too large of a quantity, mixed with alcohol. It’s a horse tranquilizer… so… ????
They are both swept up into the universe as a binary system. Always together.
But then, what do I know?! 😊
Yes that Christmas scene is so fantastic! And there is so much to speculate on the ending and I love how it is up to interpretation.
@@WhytheBookWins whether my conclusion is right or wrong, that’s how I see the ending.
I read this book back in the early 90s, and I got all up in my feelings for a while. It was certainly one of those books that's stuck with me, having incorporated some of the ghostly plot elements into my own books. My own work deals in regret, suffering, and realizing too late all the things you want to say. Good choice, I gotta check out the movie.
Yeah the book was really good! I loved how simple and sweet his time with his parents was in the book.
@@WhytheBookWins Yeah, I'm looking forward to checking out the movie. I'd heard about it last year, and the changes the movie made sounds like an interesting slant on the story.
Don't worry about the spoilers, I did that to myself. I'll still enjoy it. 🤣
Great analysis.
Thanks!
Incredibly emotional film, although I think the last shot with the zoom out could've done with something more subtle and tender than The Power of Love. Small pet peeve but otherwise great film.
It's interesting to see how different both versions seem to be, I might check out the book for myself :)
Yeah it is very different but I would still recommend it! In the video I say the book is hard to find, but I think that is because I was looking for it under its original title. It has a new movie tie in edition that I'm sure can be found just about anywhere.
The director/screenwriter's last name "Haigh" is pronounced to rhyme with "vague": long "A" and hard "G".
Please can you analize Zone of Interest vs Martin Amis' book?
I tried reading the book in December but quit pretty early on because I just couldn't get into it. The plot was very different from the movie though, it wasn't based on the real people like the movie is.
Please do Nimona!
In the end i was so confused with when was the moment Harry died, i guess i wanted to believe he was alive for a while at least but the last scene on the bed and the way the the camera goes out and the stars either means they both died or that Adam chooses to not let go of this fantasy, but certainly with Harry´s fresh suicide reveal it felt like both were dead.
I agree with all your points on the movie, I loved it. Everyone in the cast gives an amazing performance and the writing is just devastatingly beautiful. Truly a snub at the Oscars.
Yeah, at least it got a number of BAFTA nominations.
I was so confused when I was listening because I never heard of Japanese name 'Haido' before so I have to look it up and oh it's 'Hi-De-O' 😅
I watched yesterday (and I don't think I'll get over it in a long time 🫠) and I feel whatever that magazine says is wrong. He in bed with Harry was they saying goodbye, I think they even mentioned that at some point.
So I haven't read the book, but I have really mixed opinions about the ending of the movie. I thought it was all fantastic (and helped put into words a lot of the loneliness and trauma I'd felt as a gay man) right up until the end. I think this adaptation could've been served better by moving further away from the book by omitting the twist with Harry. To me, the film's thesis of it never being too late to start healing, taking care of yourself, and opening up your heart is suddenly undercut by Harry's death, which pulled the rug out from under me and felt unnecessarily cruel. I think this one really would've benefited from a happier ending. Or maybe I'm just being an overly sentimental sap.
I think you make a good point! I also felt gutted at the reveal that Harry was dead 😞 I would have had no issue with them giving it an uplifting ending
....yup going from the premise they are all dead, Amenabar's The Others style. Movie's an instant classic
The ending is also IMO the "big sleep" aka death
The key to the ending for me was when Harry said to Adam, "don't let your heart get tangled".
I think when you go on with the plot with dual name like Haido/Adam it made me really confuse whether you were talking about the movie or book in the spefic scenes.
If I used both of their names I was probably talking about something that happens in both book and movie.
WOW. Esquire’s take was extraordinarily cynical and mean. If that’s what they thought the end of the movie meant, their mind must’ve been elsewhere while watching this beautifully sad, yet HOPEFUL, film. He was preparing to let Harry go on terms that were best for HARRY. Because Adam let himself love Harry and be there for him at his most tragic moment the way Harry was always there for HIM. He was NOT holding on and trading one unresolved trauma for another.
They need to see this again…w/ their head in the game this time 🤦🏾♂️🤦🏾♂️
Yeah I kind of regret sharing that quote because I agree, I think it is a more hopeful ending than what they say. Thanks for commenting!
You must watch Andrew Scott in both Sherlock and Fleabag! Iconic.
Yeah I definitely need to watch Fleabag! I was just going to skip to his episodes, but do I need to just watch all of the show for it to make sense?
Andrew Scott is in season two of fleabag so I think you could skip the first season. In Sherlock, he is in the third episode of the first season-that was the first time I saw him and he is crazy good in that! Loved your review btw!
I don't cry at movies, but as a gay man, this movie made me cry A LOT. Almost everything resonated with me on a visceral level, including the part where Harry is talking about being the black sheep of the family. I have always said that about myself even before I saw the movie. It also made me think of my own frequent loneliness and about the loneliness that gay men share in general. It's an extremely common but unusually severe problem.
Thank you for sharing! Yeah such a powerful film and I think it helped so many gay men, but also so many in the queer community feel seen.
My interpretation of the ending was that Adam was hugging Harry until his soul trascended, that's why all turned into light and stars. That being said, the "all are dead" theory makes some sense too
Thanks for the video. For me all of them were dead. Saludos from Mexico City
A mi personalmente, la parte donde tiene la conversacion con su papá me rompio el corazon porque me paso que muchas veces cuando era chica mis padres sabian que algo andaba mal conmigo en el colegio y no pudieron ayudarme a sentir mejor hasta el final, cuando me fui de ese colegio y esa conversacion que tuvo con su papa, me trajo ese recuerdo y el llanto de Adam, me rompio el corazón :( La pelicula es simplemente hermosa y el cariño y dedicacion de Andrew Haigh fue magnifico sinceramente, se siente su dolor y pensamientos en la pelicula
¡gracias por compartir! ¡Qué película tan increíble con un elenco increíble! ¡Todavía necesito ver Fleabag!
Estoy usando Google para traducir esto, así que espero que tenga sentido 😊
I’m not sure that the ongoing comparison of the film with the book serves this review very well. Part of the brilliance of the film is Andrew Haigh’s amazing transformation into something more personal to him. This is confusing.
Sorry you found the video confusing!
@@WhytheBookWins Actually found it very informative as to the original source material, what the personal updating/transcribing of the movie entailed and quite intrigued to hunt down the earlier Japanese movie version down as well. As for book vs movie......do you have any episodes on Jim Thompson and James Ellroy books versus movies? In an Ellroy adaptation i would assume the book will always win, but in case of LaConfidential and Black Dahlia the movies are still very worthwhile and interesting into how they condensed and altered/transformed the huge books. i'd love to see an Elroy tv series on a for period's sake big budget).
Thompson has had some fairly successful adaptations as well but they rarely came to the leanness and cruel savageness of the books ...
@palmereldritch7777 thank you! And I covered LA Confidential about a year ago! I've been meaning to do Black Dahlia but still haven't gotten around to it.
@@WhytheBookWins I will Check this out as i love all the film noir classic and their literary origins. got a feeling book wil win in LA confindential's case. Black Dahlia movie got a lot of hate even though as a movie it's a much wilder transcription of the source material - and for me more interesting. Your channel has a very interesting concept !
What did I just watch? I don’t know how to feel.
i'm gonna have to give this movie a miss
too depressing and triggering >_<
thanks for the comparison
Yeah definitely covers some heavy topics. But while sad, it also has some really beautiful moments.
♥️✨🍁☕️🏳️🌈📻📚🍂💫♥️
Yeah something I dont understand is why so many gay/LGBTQIA+ (I think that's correct? they keep changing it on me) are years apart. Like I understand how for your 40+ gay crowd u had to "keep it in the closet" so to speak but why wouldnt u want to find other gay memebers ur age that can relate to that? Cause to me at least its weird how in a hetrosexual relationship we see a 60 year old dating a 25 year old as predatory or a "sugar daddy/Cougar" while in a same sex relationship it seems to be common?
I don't think queer people are more likely to have an age gap... And regardless of genders, I think a 60 years old being with a 25 year old will always be suspect.
@@WhytheBookWins So that's the thing I;ve seen though. I remember I was in foster care and one of my foster siblings was going to be adopted by a gay couple (two men) and the age gap was about twenty years (50 30 if I remember correctly). im just like "wait what?"
@@davidfitzpatrick6535 being gay, your young adult/adolescence romantic experiences can be stripped again and you can never actually experience one at times, so the older gays can sometimes go for the younger ones as a way to compensate. as for the younger ones, everyone including men and women can have daddy issues lmao
I've also seen many a hetero man go for younger women, so I honestly get the feeling that OP is being lowkey homophobic, maybe without knowing it.
Just because you saw something a couple of times doesn't make it true for an entire community.
There’s this wonderful Japanese book that I read in my early twenties called Strange weather in Tokyo about the chance encounter between a woman and her old teacher that was now 60 years old and how they slowly fall for each other that really help form my view on human encounters absent of tropes of trauma and fetishism. Yes it might be uncomfortable to many the idea of a relationship with a substantial age gap, between two adults and yes many have tainted the idea of this relationship as either predatory or monetarily advantageous but this book helped me see, sympathise and stop myself from denying the varying forms of human interaction and experience that many individuals have in the process of discovering love. So yeah, respectfully I’d have to disagree and find it unfair when people police and politicise the preference and experiences of others based on presumptions.
Also, not even going to acknowledge the initial commenters baseless generalisation about gay relationships. We’re not just going to pretend like straight men haven’t been dating women significantly younger than them for centuries.
The book sounds soooo much better...saw the movie and its a pass for me, I did love the Weekend, but this was some personal trash he could have discussed in a therapy session that not even a fly could stand