I am a firm believer in a story being better in book format than on screen. And though I hold that belief for this story, that doesn't take away from the fact that I do like the movie.
As far as character casting goes, it was a bit odd. I could see that portrayal of Alex when I read the book, and the Adidas track suit just made it even funnier to see. Known as Eli in the book, "Baruch," Alex's grandfather, looked worn and tired, as the description was given. The character that looked a bit odd to me was actually Jonathan. I pictured Jonathan being a bit more confident than meek, and for that matter, I took him to be a writer, not a collector.
Differences in the story always occur between book and film because, let's face it, sometimes it just doesn't flow right when everything is left the same between types of media. A big difference would be the fact that "Baruch" is a JEW. That is a pretty significant change considering Eli, from the book, "despised" Jews. Instead of the story being that he had his friend killed for being a Jew, the story was unravelled as Baruch being a Jewish survivor of the war.
Although I wasn't very fond of that change, I did like an element of the movie that you don't quite get with the book. Driving through the greenest fields in the country, Baruch stops to examine something he sees in the tall grass. As he sees debris scattered around, he has a flashback to the time of the war, and the viewer gets a little bit more information than the grandfather actually cares to share verbally.
The music in the movie sounds fairly light-hearted, and makes the severity of the situations seem a little bit easier to deal with. In the book, we discussed how Jonathan Safran Foer lets a deep meaningful conversation get covered with raunchy "potty humor." I think the music is one of those elements that just covers the surface. The deeper meanings that come out during the movie are in scenes without the festive music.
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