I haven't read the book, and there were definitely several atrocities in this film (the much-criticized Russian accent, for one), but I honestly don't think it's *as* bad as most people seem to. It was way too long and yet somehow couldn't fit the entire sprawling story in, and I definitely didn't appreciate the way the timeline jumped all over the place, but the story was interesting enough.

I get that many authors want to present a bunch of seemingly separate threads, develop them over 500 pages and then make them all come together and tie them in a tidy bow, but I can't stand a neat ending for the sake of supposed cleverness. The way things connected bored me, but a couple of storylines were interesting enough (Theo's "adopted" family, and the antique store). I found the explosion to be one of the least interesting elements, and the way it was revisited a tiny bit at a time throughout the film became tiresome.

Overall, this is a hot mess of a movie, but some of the performances are decent and even though I felt the length, I didn't get restless or want to leave, and it was still better than several of the films I'd seen in the past couple of weeks.

I can't recommend it and I still have no desire to read the book, but I'm not sorry I saw it. *shrug*