Richard Russo’s Empire Falls

Richard Russo won a Pulitzer for his novel, Empire Falls and well he should have. He deserved it and then some. When I first read the book it was one of those I didn’t want to put down. I make that distinction because a book that is really good deserves to be put down and contemplated. The times I have read a book straight through I think I missed a lot.

Empire Falls, set in a depressed Maine mill town, is one of those complex novels with multiple layers of lives intertwined. Of course, I also liked it because much of it is set in a diner — Empire Diner. I have a fondness for books with a lot of scenes in diners because, well, I wrote one. Diners are interesting places.

The reason I am writing about this now is that I recently saw the HBO version of Empire Falls on DVD. Netflix has it (or will when I send it back) and I recommend you rent it. It is one of those very rare instances of a movie being every bit as good as the book. Of course Russo also wrote the script so that helped and it has one of the most delicious casts on video. Ed Harris, one of the most watchable actors I’ve ever seen, as Miles Roby, Aidan Quinn as his brother David, and Paul Newman as their crabby, irresponsible, stinky, curmudgeonly old father, look so much alike — all with their bright blue eyes — that their interactions as sons and father reminds you of home.

One of the things that writers either anticipate or dread when they have created a work of fiction is seeing it interpreted on the screen. Some writers admit to having an actor in mind when they write a part, others can’t imagine anyone in that role (I admit to being in the latter category). But one of the things that makes a movie from a great book work is finding the right performers to play the parts. I watched the interviews included on the DVD (I swear I like them better than the movies most times) and Russo said that when Paul Newman read the novel, he called him up (imagine picking up the phone and hearing “hi, this is Paul Newman, I just read your book” — awk! thunk!) and said, “Nobody could play Max Roby like I could.” And, of course, he was right. Well, with one teeny exception. In the brief scene in which we see Max as a young man, he is played by Josh Lucas, who, along with Adrian Brody, gets my bid for the new generation of Most Watchables. Young Max (Lucas) and old Max (Newman) are seamless. Amazing.

Helen Hunt as Miles estranged wife Janine, Estelle Parsons as her bartending mother, and Dennis Farina as her pompous, obnoxious fiancé are wonderful and perfect. Theresa Russell is just fabulous as David’s sultry, wise, waitress girlfriend. If all that isn’t enough to tempt you into running right out and renting the DVD there are two more stunners: the vicious, scheming grand dame, Mrs. Whiting, is deliciously played by Joanne Woodward and the entirely touching and surprisingly sexy Charlie Mayne is Philip Seymour Hoffman.

I guess my point in writing this, other than to say, you should see it, is that it is gratifying to a writer to see such an example of a darn-near-perfect bunch of characters from a novel become a darn-near-perfect bunch of characters in a movie. It makes you appreciate how one art form can enhance a different art form. Books-to-movies is probably the most common form of one art interpreting another. I’ve seen it done very badly (why, oh, why did Pat Conroy let them make a movie of Prince of Tides?) so it’s great to see it done so well.

For once the movies came up with something better than my imagination. How great is that?

Thanks for reading.