Rebuilding Rob

My 10th graders have been reading John Steinbeck’s Of Mice & Men for the last week or so, I decided to play the 1992 version of the movie, which I had never before seen myself. Hence, this week’s retro review of the movie.

On his way to becoming the 1990s Hollywood Everyman, Gary Sinise pulls double duty, both directing and costarring as George in this most recent adaptation of the John Steinbeck novella. John Malkovich co-stars as Lennie, a developmentally-challenged man who is looked after by George. Both men work together, look after each other and chase the American Dream in Depression Era California.

As someone who has read this book 5 times from cover- to-cover in the last three weeks, I can tell you that this particular movie adaptation does the source material justice. As Mice… is technically a novella and clocks in at around 100 pages, it’s an ideal length for a feature-length film. To the best of my knowledge, no major plot points are dropped from the book. In fact, we see a bit of Lennie and George’s back story acted out in the films exposition – rather than explained in dialogue.

Sinise just looks like he came out of the 1930s. And of course, I’ll never say anything bad about John Malkovich. Seriously, he’s one of those rare actors whom I would gladly hand over $15 to watch him read a phone book for two hours. My only complaint about his performance as Lenny is that I always envisioned the character to be even bigger, more imposing. Doing a little research for this posting, I learned that John Malkovich is about 6 feet tall; where is Gary is 5’ 9”. I assumed that Sinise had to use some trick photography; shooting Malkovich at different angles to make him appear even larger than he really is. But Malkovich is as Malkovich does; and the actor Malkovitches the hell out of this performance; effectively filling Lennie’s large shoes.

Of course, 18-year-old Rob would never forgive me if I didn’t at least mention the irrepressible Sherlyn Fenn, as Curley’s ill-fated and unnamed wife. In all seriousness, Fenn does a good job of capturing the mystery of Curley‘s wife. Is she a Maneater? Is she the lonely prisoner of her terribly controlling husband? That’s left for the viewer to interpret.

FINAL TAKE: go ahead and watch it! If you’re a fan of the novella, this particular movie adaptation does it justice. If you’ve never read the book, and want the crash course on it, go ahead and spend two hours watching the movie.

Thanks for stopping by Rebuilding Rob. Be sure to like, 👍 comment and subscribe to my blog below. It’s greatly appreciated! Also, feel free to follow me on social media as well! Check out my most recent posts as well as some earlier, related posts

• Rob’s Retro Movie Review: This is Spinal Tap (1984) – The Movie That Scaled to Eleven
• A Death in the Family (And My Disposable Income): My Life in Comics
• The Supporting Cast: Navigating the Eras of Male Friendship
• Life is What Happens: A Look Back at My Non-Existent 2025 Vision
• The Moment I Walked Inside a Hallmark Movie

The article: “Rob’s Retro Review Of Mice & Men (1992)” first appeared on Rebuilding Rob.

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