Directed by Joseph Strick
Reviewed by Patrick Harrington
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Joyce plays with language. The style of writing varies throughout the book and this is reflected in the film. Each chapter of the book uses a different narrative technique. Some are told from the first person, some are told by an all-knowing narrator, and some by an anonymous witnesses. This can be a litle bewildering but it is also intriguing.
The film, like the book, is curiously life-affirming – despite the petty mean acts and betrayals which are present. The end of the film shows Bloom and Molly, his cuckolding wife, renewing their relationship. As the Producer and Director Joseph Strick says in the sleeve notes to the DVD: “It is the supreme achievement of Joyce’s art that he brings about, not a happy ending, but a hopeful one.”
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