As a standalone feature the movie may have been successful, but as most movies these days go, the screenplay was adapted from the source material, and inevitably left out some key elements.
The largest of these omissions was combining Uncle Al and August into one character. I didn't understand the reasoning behind it, and a lot of drama is lost. Christoph Waltz is a capable actor, but's it's hard to convincingly play the man who's greed and desperation runs the circus into the ground, and the tortured, schizophrenic man who's rage and cruelty drives his wife and friends away.
Also I think that the entire theme of living during the late depression is largely glamorized and you never really sense how desperate the men are, and thus have a hard time believing the finale.
I was also saddened by what happened to Walter and Camel in the book, but unmoved in the movie... the friendship had no build-up... they disliked one another then they were BFF's.
The last omission was an understandable deviation from the book, but in it was so critical to the theme of the story that I missed it in the movie. I'm talking about the scenes in the nursing home where we see the shell of a man that Jacob became, and we're left feeling almost as helpless and depressed as him until he finally makes it to the circus in the end.
The largest of these omissions was combining Uncle Al and August into one character. I didn't understand the reasoning behind it, and a lot of drama is lost. Christoph Waltz is a capable actor, but's it's hard to convincingly play the man who's greed and desperation runs the circus into the ground, and the tortured, schizophrenic man who's rage and cruelty drives his wife and friends away.
Also I think that the entire theme of living during the late depression is largely glamorized and you never really sense how desperate the men are, and thus have a hard time believing the finale.
I was also saddened by what happened to Walter and Camel in the book, but unmoved in the movie... the friendship had no build-up... they disliked one another then they were BFF's.
The last omission was an understandable deviation from the book, but in it was so critical to the theme of the story that I missed it in the movie. I'm talking about the scenes in the nursing home where we see the shell of a man that Jacob became, and we're left feeling almost as helpless and depressed as him until he finally makes it to the circus in the end.