Perhaps the heart of the matter is the false lure of the original: some books, such as Ironweed despite strung visual incidents and an almost palpable sense of place, just do not translate to the screen.

If you enjoyed Richard E Grant and Melissa McCarthy as on-the-skids New Yorkers in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, here's an even starrier example of Hollywood poverty porn.

Good performances, but If you're looking for an uplifting tale of hope against despair, look elsewhere.

...the picture, which runs a palpably padded-out 143 minutes, has been suffused with a decidedly sluggish pace that’s exacerbated by the episodic, momentum-free narrative...