Remarkably Bright Creatures: Book vs Movie

On paper, a book about an elderly widow befriending an octopus sounds like two different books stapled together. In practice, it makes you cry for an hour. Shelby Van Pelt somehow makes it work, and this week we read the 2022 bestseller and then watched the Netflix adaptation starring Sally Field, which dropped May 8th. What started as a book discussion turned into a full argument about an octopus, and we are not done having it.

The Marcellus debate is exactly what it sounds like. Is he essential to the story, or is he a very emotionally useful plot device that we could technically live without? We did not reach consensus. We came in with strong opinions, we left with strong opinions, and we invite you to come pick a side.

We also couldn't agree on what kind of book this even is. A grief novel? A found-family story? A community story about lonely people finding each other? An emotional comfort read with a touch of weirdness? The answer is probably yes to all of it, which is part of why it works. The grief in this book doesn't perform. It doesn't give speeches. It just lives inside Tova the way it actually lives inside people, woven into the routines and the ordinary days, and that's what got us.

It got some of us more than others. This one hit close to home for reasons we talk about on the episode, and if you've ever read a book that landed differently because of where you were in life when you picked it up, you know exactly what we mean.

Cameron should not be a likable character. He runs entirely on bad decisions and what we generously called "chaotic van energy." We wanted to supervise him. We wanted to hand him a list of competent choices and wait. And yet we all cared about where he ended up, which is either great writing or proof that protective frustration is a valid emotional response.

On the adaptation: Sally Field is a national treasure and we will not be taking questions. Her performance holds this movie together. We all picked the book if forced to choose, but we mean it when we say the adaptation is genuinely good. If you're not a reader, watch the movie. It earns its runtime.

We loved the book. We loved the adaptation. When pressed to choose one, we voted unanimously for the book, with the sincere caveat that the movie is worth your time and Sally Field alone makes it worth watching.

Come listen, come pick a side on Marcellus, and find everything else at https://linktr.ee/chapteronesceneone