Stone Reader

It seems those few critics and IMDB (and Amazon) reviewers who criticized it--occasionally while still giving it a favorable mark--are intent on complaining about what the movie ISN'T rather than what it is. Sure, the fictionalized shots of guys getting the book in the mail, etc., violate The Great Ethics of Documentary Films brought down from Sinai by Moses. (You know, Thou Shalt Not Recreate). And, yes, he does meander a bit and delay the pay off, but...so what?

This is more a conversation about books than a movie in any conventional sense. Complaints that some many interviews don't move him towards the goal of finding Dow Mossman miss the point that the interviews are themselves interesting conversations about the love of good books. Visiting Sealy (the NY Times reviewer who inspired him to read the book) doesn't solve anything--but who wouldn't want to hang around with him a couple of days discussing great reads? Of course, when he finds Dow, what do they do? They immediately talk about books! Love of books permeates everything here, most poignantly and surprisingly in the clearly emotional response the agent Carl Brandt has to being reminded of what he considers a great book and reflecting on a missed career.

Let's put it this way: if you love books, if you love talking about novels, if you get a thrill of excitement when you over hear a conversation about a book you love, then you will enjoy The Stone Reader. It is not conventionally well made, but thank heavens for that. It could be "better", but I doubt it could be more enjoyable.

I enjoyed this movie but the search was too contrived -- in an hour's worth of phone calling, just to the people listed on the book jacket, Dow's location would have been nailed down. Obviously, that wouldn't have made much of a movie, but it is exasperating to watch Mark Moskowitz go through this painstaking, globe-trotting search for someone who wasn't that hard to find.

However, the story of a well-written, well-reviewed book disappearing without a trace, the author's story, and the interesting web of people connected to him make this a satisfying and unique movie.

The Stone Reader is a documentary film based on a man's quest to find a book writer which whom he is absolutely amazed by. This book writer, Dow, wrote a single book, `The Stones of Summer,' and then disappeared and never wrote again. This man is search of Dow is confused why Dow would write this book which received excellent reviews would just stop writing after only producing one book. This documentary is different from most documentaries a person would normally watch. Most documentaries teach an audience about a certain event or person. This film elaborates on a person, but it's really not about the person per say. The film focuses on the quest or dream of a man to find this amazing writer and the process of which he does it, but most of the time the audience is actually learning about the writer and how he was unknown to the world even though he accomplished something great. What I mean by this is that the camera is following the man on the quest, but the whole time everyone, including himself, is talking about Dow. The thing that is interesting about this film is the way that everything filtered together. Being a documentary, the producer can't predict how the thing is going to end or how other things will come together. During this time of searching for Dow, this man travels everywhere talking to people who reviewed the book, people that went to college with Dow, and even individuals that helped put the book into production, but none of these people knew who Dow was and many of them never read or even heard of his book. So this man was running into a bunch of dead ends. Finally, he gets a hold of Dow's writing professor just to talk, not even mentioning Dow's name. So the two are talking about his students, this is all taking place in Iowa I might add and that Dow was a student here at the university, but the professor describes on of his students who he sent to get psychiatric help and it happened to be Dow who was still living in Iowa. If only the man would have started his search from where Dow started, his quest could have been accomplished with less hassle, but then the documentary would have been a lot shorter and less interesting.

I saw The Stone Reader at an advanced screening and thought it was wonderful. Finally, a movie made by someone who understands the magic of books. Moskowitz (sp?) talks a lot about the indication of a good book being that you feel like the author is just sitting there talking to you. It's so true, and what Moskowitz may not realize is that he accomplishes the same thing through his film. It drags in places and the camera work is a bit jumpy, but the content more than makes up for it. Thoroughly enjoyable, I'd recommend it to anyone who's ever loved a book.

I am not avid reader, but I enjoy watching the film. Mark Moskowitz is actor, director, producer, and screenwriter of the film Stone Reader. Moskowitz talks about various books through his youth in the film, that he remembers reading, but one book he wonders. What happen to the author after writing one book (The Stones of Summer by Dow Mossman)? Moskowitz searches for Mossman through the film and asks why stop after writing one book. An journey of a forgotten book that you never forget.