Ian McEwans novel Enduring Love was published in 1997 while the movie came out in 2004. The film and the book differ a great deal, the most obvious change being the renaming of Joe Roses love interest, Clarissa Mellon, to Claire, and the change in her position from wife to girlfriend. The character is now a sculptor instead of the Keats scholar she was in the novel, which although that it somewhat portrays their relationship a little differently such as the reason why Clarissa doesnt sculpt Joe is because she see have to imagine him as object with no sense of attachment or emotion. The fact that later in the film she does sculpt an image of Joe means that at this point there is not much between them that really strives for emotional attachment for one other . Joe's profession has also changed from science writer to university lecturer and the key topics that he discusses to himself in his heard are bounced off or heard about from discussions he has from friends and other people. Also at beginning of the film Joe agrees to kneel in pray a position with Jed, which is certainly not what he does in the novel as he argues his disbelief not easily bending is rationalism to something so ridiculous in his opinion. Plus Jed Parry is no longer living a life of comfort on his inherited wealth but what appears as a rundown flat, perhaps to try and create a more a disturb mentally ill person with this dark stalking obsession of his.
Several key scenes from the novel do not appear in the film, and in their place are new scenes devised by the screenwriter, some of the other scenes or certain aspects mat not have been included due to cost and time management of the film. At the beginning the picnic is for Clarissas return from abroad trip but any mention of Clarissa being abroad is left out, meaning that the understanding that Clarissa travels frequently undermines her independency as a married woman who is free to travel from home by herself away from her husband. The part in the novel were Joe searches though Clarissas draws for indication that she might be seeing someone else is left out in movie, which drives a further wedge between her relationship with Joe has she later confronts Joe about this stating that she trusts Joe enough to know that he isnt cheating behind her back nor can she look through any of Joes possessions because she knows that it is indecent and is not that paranoid has Joe, showing her sensible nature or breakdown in any sort of mental stress.
The stalking of Joe is quite a mystery in the novel - it is not clear at first whether or not it is simply within Joe's mind, as the reader understands that Joe is still in shock from the balloon accident. In the film the stalking is portrayed as obvious reality throughout with somewhat of a comedic element at the beginning before it is taken seriously by Joe.
Joe is driven to the boundaries of his sanity in the novel through the many possessive letters posted by Jed, which help the reader to understand Jed's state of mind. These are not included in the film, neither are the constant phone calls in the beginning, this leaves out the character development of Jed because audience is then robbed of opportunity to analyse Jeds state of mind and to know about more Jeds obsession with Joe and why.
The Joes phone calls and visit to the police are also left out for some reason because without them then the audience doesnt see the anxiety/uneasiness that Joe feels from Jeds stalking and the potential threat he really represents specially after the attempted shooting where the detective does not believe him, possibly because he gets many of the facts from the incident incorrectly.
There is a scene in the novel where Jed arranges for Joe to be shot while celebrating Clarissa's birthday at a restaurant with her Godfather. The wrong man is shot by the hit-men; this is the point in the novel where Joe grasps Jed's potential for violence. This scene is not included in the film; it instead appears in the film that Joe is the violent one, appearing in Jed's flat with a baseball bat using it to threaten Jed.
In the climactic scene of the novel, Jed does not stab Clarissa or share a kiss with Joe. Jed instead moves from threatening Clarissa with a knife to slitting his own throat, which is only stopped by Joe shooting him in the elbow with the gun he had obtained, not shooting to kill him after the kiss. Joe escapes without charges for shooting Jed in the novel, but there is no mention any charges against Joe in the movie or any statements of what transpired. In the first of the novel's appendices a medical report on Jed's condition is written and the reader learns that Joe and Clarissa have eventually reconciled and that they adopt a child. In the second, a letter from Jed to Joe, the reader learns that after three years, Parry remains uncured, and is now living in a psychiatric hospital. Whereas in the movie Joe and Clarissa meet in the Place where it all began and appear unable to reconcile their love for each other, at least Clarissa seems unable to.
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