4.0 out of 5 star rating<\/span> <\/span> <\/div> <\/div> Soon after its publication in 1985, author Don DeLillo\u2019s heady satire of family turmoil, fringe academia and existential angst was ushered into an elite club of novels several critics deemed un-filmable. The labyrinthine plotting, taking in pit-stops to ponder addiction, religious faith and consumer culture, peeled open slowly over close to 400 paperback pages, suggesting any screen adaptation by even the most accomplished director would represent a formidable challenge.<\/p>\n
Consequently, lovers of the award-winning book (and there are many) are likely to approach the movie version with extreme caution, fearful of how much narrative or how many characters have been sacrificed to fit a running time of 135 minutes. Would the essence of DeLillo\u2019s themes and theories remain intact in the face of inevitable cinematic short cuts?<\/p>
The maker of such alluring humour-laced dramas as The Squid And The Whale, Greenberg and Frances Ha, writer and director Noah Baumbach has the credentials to take on the job with confidence and, perhaps more importantly, respect for the nuances of the source material. The result is an engrossing, cerebral black comedy with the capacity to both reassure and wrong-foot the most diehard DeLillo fan in equal measure.<\/p>\n
Jack Gladney (Adam Driver) and his wife Babette (Greta Gerwig) are each on their fourth marriage, in a busy household overrun by misfit offspring they had with previous spouses, like a manic twist on vintage TV sitcom The Brady Bunch. Jack teaches the dubious subject of Hitler studies at the same idyllic suburban college where his friend Murray (Don Cheadle) lectures in Hollywood car crashes, while at home he and Babette wrestle with mortality in sombre conversations about which of them will die first.<\/p>\n
Nearby, an audaciously filmed chemical spill triggers what the authorities class an \u201cairborne toxic event\u201d, necessitating a full-scale evacuation of the town that takes the family on a wild ride in their modest station wagon to a makeshift hostel until it\u2019s safe to go outside again. However, questions hang over whether Jack has been infected with something that\u2019ll slowly kill him, and just what\u2019s in those mysterious pills Babette\u2019s popping when her husband and the kids aren\u2019t looking?<\/p>\n