Flowers for Algernon (2000 film)

Adaptation

This film had an uphill battle given how classic the book was. I think that this being the first adaptation (that I could find) since the book’s release 34 years earlier was telling. Also, a made-for-TV movie, or movie of the week, wasn’t what I was expecting.

The teleplay was by John Pielmeier, who is a playwright, but also has many other television adaptations to his name. Similarly, the director, Jeff Bleckner, also has a lot of television credits to his name. Unfortunately, I can’t really speak to either of their other works as I think this is the only thing I’ve now seen by either.

One of the biggest changes to the film from the book as that the film didn’t use the approach of Charlie’s journals. This could have easily been accomplished by having Matthew Modine narrate parts of it. I think this would have made the film a lot more impactful. That being said, they did a decent job of helping the audience get to know and have feelings for Charlie.

My biggest beef with the film was that certain story threads and characters were either minimized or left out all together. This is a risk with adaptations since most of the time you can’t have it all. But my question is why have Faye in the movie at all if she’s just going to be in once scene? And having “old Charlie” come out when he’s drunk did not come across well in the movie. It felt like a switch was flipped, whereas in the book, it was a little more gradual.

I do wish there was more of the old vs new Charlie shown in the movie. That was a powerful struggle in the book. Not a struggle like one was trying to get out or anything. But the struggle inside Charlie of who he was, who he is, and how those parts of him are… well, parts of him. Again, the movie has to make certain adjustments to fit the medium, but some of that was lost for me.

The death of Algernon really got to me in the movie. I wasn’t as impacted by this in the book (in fact, the book made Algernon’s death feel like an afterthought), but here I was full-on crying.

Cast / Characters

Of course, the main star here is Matthew Modine. And he did a fantastic job transitioning from old Charlie into new Charlie and back again. He was a bit goofy for my taste at certain points, but there was such a character shift that took place and he played it really well. And he made it feel like it was really Charlie in there the whole time.

Ron Rifkin was another standout in this movie. He’s one of those actors who’s that guy in the thing. I remember him best from the show Alias. I generally like him in what I see him in. And I generally liked him here too.

Music

I… can honestly say that I don’t remember the music at all… so… yeah…

Book or Movie?

Book – hands down. This is a decent-enough adaptation, but it just doesn’t give the full weight of the book. It’s almost like the movie was just the highlight reel or something. I gave it 3.5/5 stars, but even as I write this, I’m wondering if I overinflated my rating. It’s not a horrible movie by any stretch, but I just prefer the book.