Compare And Contrast The Secret In Their Eyes Book And Movie

Although the novel The Secret in Their Eyes and the film of the same name have stylistic changes and changes in how events happen with the addition of a scene or two, the stories stay true to each other, to a point. The changes include making Irene more involved within the story and changing Chaparro’s character less outwardly faint-hearted, and most of the changes relate to different characters. All the changes and differences between the two serve a purpose within the narrative, usually to make scenes more dramatic for the viewer or to fit scenes within a certain time frame. When we are comparing the novel and its film adaptation, we are addressing whether “an adaptation arrives first at a comparison between a novel and film, and second at

However, perceptions between the two differ from even each other. As Lupack says:

In asserting an adaptation we are not really comparing book with film but rather interpretation with interpretation - the novel that we ourselves have recreated in our imaginations, out of which we have constructed our own individualized “movie,” and the novel on which the filmmaker has worked a parallel transformation. (10)

Although we do have our different perceptions about the novel and the story within it, these perceptions are, more or less, similar to each other. As these only vary so much from each other, they can still be a considerably veritable basis of comparison for the two versions of this story, the versions focused on being the novel and the the film. When comparing between our variations, we can compare the changes to see “how much of written work’s plot and characterization has been translated into the new medium, how comprehensive and intelligent an understanding of the original (its strengths, its weaknesses) underlies the translation” (Hunter 159). But when comparing the two we have to remember that “To understand adaptation, for example, we must begin by understanding books and movies are separate and never should be confused with each other,” (Crane 15) so even though the story is similar and the film pulls many elements from the novel, they are still two separate

While he still “anchors the narrative development in El secreto, … he is portrayed as both in control and powerless,” (Rocha 5) within both narrations, in the film he is depicted as less ineffectual towards Irene, being wittier towards her in the present time, possibly more confident in his novel. He is also portrayed as less faint-hearted in the film, as he does not seem to shy away as much from Lillianna 's body as the novel’s narrative tells us. Another facet of Chaparro being less timid in the film is that when he tells Romano that he is going to file a complaint and Romano goes at him, Chaparro fought back. If Romano had attacked Chaparro like that in the novel, it is more likely that Chaparro would not know what to do and either just stand there startled and not fight back or run away as fast as he could. A minor change between variations is that his name is changed, for the reason that Chaparro has the connotation of ‘short and squat,’ and most likely the director did not want to have an immediate negative association to the main character based on the meaning of his