Read a little deeper Jack, it's in there.

If the reviewer is taking issue with what English majors think of a film, then he is presuming that all literary criticism is somehow fully transportable to the film genre. Some of it is, intertextuality in particular, but for the most part, his slamming English majors over what they think of a film is like focusing on what the carpenter has to say about the sink installation, and not asking the plumber first. The carpenter has some familiarity, may have a lot, but isn't necessarily the best first person to discuss the sink with.

If we're simply discussing good thoughtful reviews, then any viewer is certainly going to have something to say about the film. But to isolate one set of viewers (English majors) and turn them into straw men is disingenuous. The reviewer is arguing against a made-up opponent, and of course, since he made up the opponent, he is going to make the opponent look ridiculous, and make himself look reasonable.

I can see the reason for his frustration. The English majors come to the film with more information because they actually read the source material, in this case a book, so they understand intricacies of the plot that may have been difficult to convey on film. The clues may be minute, and may have been missed by a viewer on the first viewing, or aspects of the story may have been glossed over (or left on the cutting room floor).

Consider the Harry Potter films. The producers know full well that a large percentage of the viewers of any of these when they're newly released will have read the book and will understand a lot more about the story than the film has time to show. The filmmaker makes choices and tells the story on film in a way that makes sense for a film, so future generations who may not have read the book will still follow the story in the film. My daughter complained that the last Harry Potter film left out too much. But that's because she re-read the book and knew the complete story well. Given a few years and if she watches the film again, I think she'll see that it hangs together well as a work of art on its own, and that she doesn't need to go re-read the books to understand story the film is telling.

There is a lot going on in that "review" LH posted, and a lot of it has nothing to do with the film. He has an ax to grind.

SRS