Page to Screen: 'Paranoid Park' Meets Neorealistic Skater Flick
A few months ago I wrote about a made-over and re-released book,Girl by Blake Nelson. Well, I'm back on the Blake Nelson bottle and this time it's with Paranoid Park. Published in 2006, it was recently made into movie and premiered this week. The film, directed by Gus Van Sant, was lauded and loved at Sundance. Here is a pretty stellar review by David Edelstein on Fresh Air, too, in case you need more convincing of its merit. I watched it on cable in the "IFC In Theaters" category. (What a great Comcast feature for movies that are a little more obscure than your average blockbuster and have only shown in the bigger cities.)
Needless to say I loved the book. I also loved the movie. It was beautiful and airy and lyrical while conveying the gritty clumsiness of adolescence. Van Sant delivers his experimental films with respect for his characters and their point-of-view in an elevated, artistic way that never cheapens them. Often dealing with the pain and confusion of youth, he never sells them out like so much of the teen-sploitation we see everywhere today. It's refreshing.
Van Sant transformed the story and the main character in ways that I find hard to describe. There is an ethereal quality to "Paranoid Park" that is not present in the book. The overall voice of the character is different, too. He narrates like a boy -- Like a competent, but uncomfortable reader, unaffected. It's nice, but in spite of the circumstances I read Alex as a more confident protagonist. He's presumably writing a confessional most likely never to be read by anyone. Yes, he's young, but this is his story, not someone else's. Van Zant also changed the details that surround the train-hopping "accident." I found it curious that Van Sant assigned more fault to the main character. In the book the incident as it happens is clearer, but the issues of guilt and responsibility are more confusing.
Reading Paranoid Park and watching the film reminded me of an important issue in a world where every film we see seems to have been based on a book: They are different experiences. Different works of art. Different creative expressions. In this particular case, the story is there, the characters are the same, some of the dialogue came directly from the book, but the book and the film are unique in and of themselves. Separate and equal. Comparing them seems irrelevant. I can't decide which I prefer -- not which version of Paranoid Park, but a movie that stays true and close to the original book, or one that takes it to another level completely. I think the latter.
That being said. It depends on the book, doesn't it? Imagine the bloody revolution of muggles had the Harry Potter books been re-created in anything but the closest and truest film version possible. Anything interpretive would NOT have been tolerated nor would it have worked. "Paranoid Park" works and it's gorgeous, just don't expect what you expect.
Posted by alli
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