Novels vs. Movies

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This is not a discussion about which we like more, because I know that in most cases, the novel is much better than the movie. The novel gives the complete story. The movie captures whatever can be seen quickly and understood, for the most part. A few months ago, I watched a movie called, "Nocturnal Animals", starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal. I enjoyed the movie, for the most part. But it had a strange ending that left me with a lot of questions. So I did some research and found out that there had been a novel first. The novel is called, "Tony and Susan" by Austin Wright. So I ordered it from the library. And promptly forgot all about it. In my current bag of books, which goes back to the library tomorrow, I read the books that grabbed me. A couple of books stayed behind because they just didn't look interesting. But when I spoke with the librarian, I decided to renew two of them. One is called, "Tony and Susan", although I had no idea what it was. Until today, when I opened it and began reading. And then I remembered! And then more questions began to surface. When the casting people begin their search for the characters for the movie, why don't they pay more attention to what the characters look like? Readers of the novels know the characters pretty well, for the most part, and when we watch the movies, whether or not we enjoy a movie can often times be based on the fact that the actors don't resemble the characters at all! Case in point: Jack Reacher. Any fans of those books knows that Tom Cruise is NOT Jack Reacher by any stretch of the imagination. He's good in the role and I still enjoy the movies. Mostly. But he's not Jack Reacher. Just as Jake Gyllenhaal is not Tony. Tony was blonde. Jake was not. They couldn't make that change for the movie? Probably not. I don't think Jake would look good as a blonde. But then again, who knows? Did they try? Out of all the other actors in the universe, he was the only one who could have played this part? Maybe I'm being picky, but I've heard so many similar comments from other people after watching different movies that I don't think I'm so far off the mark here. Casting people cast for so many different reasons, and most times I think they forget that anyone loved the book to begin with. I can't imagine how authors feel about their characters being changed so much. Well, yes, I can imagine. I've read a lot about Stephen King hating many of his characters in their movies, and Anne Rice had a major fit about Tom Cruise (yes, him again) playing Lestat in "Interview with the Vampre". The right actor makes a difference. Not that my rant makes any difference. I still prefer the books, but I'm also curious about the movies. Claudia