A choppy movie with some good bits and some perplexing parts. I went after reading the book, so could fill in the gaps of the story with my reading of the book. The film was different in some important ways, notably the ending was changed and was weak.. Of course the landscape and filming was awesome, however as a West Australian the use of Esperance as a location was unexpected as obviously it was written about north of Perth at Lancelin, so it missed the point of where Winton was writing about. The genuine Australian actors were under-utilised which contrasted with Hedlands inability to speak in a believable Australian accent with weird blurting in an Irish accent. Yes he was handsome but why use an American when we have so many great actors. The story line did not flow particularly well and that was probably the biggest problem.... trying to convert a great read into a great watch. Nevertheless I enjoyed the film because of The West Australian setting.