Saw it this afternoon and for a Sunday afternoon there seemed to be a decent sized crowd.
As someone who read the book, and all of Rand’s other books, I thought it was ok. It’s hard to make it just on part 1 and in only an hour and a half or so, there really isn’t time to do the setup and background that’s in the book.
That said, I thought Dagny was too young. Maybe it was just my impression from reading the book, but I couldn’t get over that she looked so young(just out of college). I that having her and James be that young looking was a bit of a mistake. Apparently the actress is in her mid 20s and in the book Dagny was in her mid 30s. I’d have gone for a more age appropriate actor. Aside from that which was an constant bother, I thought she did a good job.
Francisco also seemed way too young. Like he was in high school.
It picked up towards the end once the story started moving with the 20th century motor co and the John Galt Line.
I was upset that they left out Francisco’s money speech at the party. That’s a pretty big part of the book and they could have fit a few minutes worth in. They went a little bit light on the philosophy part of it.
But all in all, as a fan of the book and her work, it was nice to be able to see it on the big screen. I know just about everyone who has read it has had their own cast in mind, their own actors, their own vision of what it would look like, so it was going ot be very difficult to please everyone. An 1168 pg book is hard to film, and to just have the first part in 90 minutes or so is even harder.
But I did enjoy it and I thought it got the basic message across.
Hope we get to see parts 2 and 3 as things should be even better then.
Overall, a solid B. 3 stars out of 5.
update: The guy who played Francisco is 47! He didn’t look a day over 25. They still should have included his “What is the root of money? “ speech.
Another highlight was seeing the guy who played Bill’s friend Don on “Big Love” show up out of nowhere for a brief scene. He’s one of those “hey, it’s that guy” actors.
For all the critics, even in The Fountainhead when Rand herself was intimately involved in the script and the shooting, many complained. So for what was basically an amateur production with no real stars or even a top notch director/behind the camera talent, it was pretty good.
It had a strong per screen average so hopefully it ends up doing well.