So Much Water, So Far Away

For all of us who liked Robert Altman’s adaptation of Raymond Carver’s stories and poems in "Short Cuts" but wondered why he set it in L.A....

Now comes a film adaptation of Carver’s "So Much Water So Close to Home" set in New Zealand.

Charles McGrath at the New York Times likes "Jindabyne," a new Aussie film directed by Ray Lawrence and starring Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney. McGrath, it seems, even has a grasp of Carver. Here’s the lede to his piece:

The writer Raymond Carver is often said to be a minimalist, which isn’t quite accurate. He’s no more a minimalist than Chekhov, the writer he most resembles, and some of Carver’s late stories, like "Blackbird Pie," are almost lush in their texture. Carver is also like Hemingway, though, in the simplicity and clarity of his pared-down language, his precise descriptions, his use of dialogue to evoke complicated emotional situations. Not a lot happens in a typical Carver story — or not a lot that goes on outside people’s heads — and this may explain why, though he is admired by many filmmakers (and probably even more screenwriters), not many Carver works have been turned into movies. There are only a handful of Carver-inspired films, most lasting less than half an hour.

Read the entire story in the April 16 New York Times.