etc.

It sometimes happens that I watch a movie based on a book I have not read, like it, and therefore feel the need to read the book even though I already know how it all ends. Or not, you can never really tell with Hollywood I guess. When this happens, more often than not, I really like the book too, and usually more than I liked the film. This time is no exception.

Monty Brogan is a former drug dealer who has 24 hours of freedom left before he gets sent to Otisville Federal Penitentiary to serve a seven year prison sentence. The book details these last 24 hours in an unsentimental and sometimes darkly humourous way. Monty is a brazen, vaguely smarmy, hipster who has earned a living off of other people’s weaknesses, but Benioff does a great job of making him sympathetic even though he remains recalcitrant throughout the book. He spends his last hours celebrating with his two friends: Frank, a bond trader, and Jakob, a teacher. The juxtaposition is an interesting one because it sort of illustrates that for all his evil-doing, Monty is actually a good guy, certainly nicer than his high-wheeling, predatory, bond-trading friend, and far more well-adjusted than his other, sexually-awkward, pedophile friend. By the end of the book, you’re rooting for Monty all the way.

Sidenote: the film script follows the novel very closely with a couple of very minor deviations. The most striking difference for me was that in the film, Monty (played by the very earnest Ed Norton) was even more sympathetic than he was in the book, with a couple of key details (like his final-hour romp with a prostitute) edited out. Probably a clean-up job for the audience.