One thing's for sure, WMJ. Neither the novel nor the movie are typical horror fodder.

The movie follows the novel fairly closely. Don't quote me on that because I read it twenty years ago, but it seems to be more or less the same, except for a couple of minor subplots that have been excised for the screen. It's two and a half hours long, and would have been three or more hours if they'd kept everything.

I'm a Tom Tykwer fan. I've seen all his films that have been released in the USA, and I've enjoyed them all, even WINTER SLEEPERS, which is probably the least of them. HEAVEN is a great picture, and there's nothing quite like PERFUME or LOLA RENNT.