The Whisper Man makes some pretty significant changes to Alex North’s original novel, but arguably the biggest is how Jake’s kidnapping actually unfolds. And it makes Tom’s reaction to the letterbox jump scare all the more questionable. The Netflix film follows widowed author Tom Kennedy (Adam Scott), who moves into a new home with his son Jake (Acston Luca Porto) following the death of his wife Rebecca. Jake struggles to deal with his grief, while Tom struggles to understand his son – especially his habit of speaking with people who seemingly aren’t there. Things quickly start getting creepy at the new house, particularly when Tom wakes up one night to find Jake sitting by the front door talking to someone outside. As Tom watches, a blue-gloved hand reaches through the letterbox towards Jake. He immediately pulls his son away and opens the door, but whoever was standing outside has already disappeared. It’s a pretty massive warning sign, but weirdly, Tom doesn’t appear to do, well, anything. Credit: Netflix Eventually he calls the police, but only after he discovers a mysterious man hiding in his basement. The man knocks him to the ground and escapes, although police believe he was probably a squatter and advise Tom to improve the security around the house. Not long afterwards, Tom gets frustrated with Jake while he’s talking about the “boy in the floor” and his imaginary friend. Tom, who has been drinking to deal with his own grief, yells at him and eventually falls asleep. When he wakes up during the night, the front door is open and Jake is gone. But when the police check the security cameras he’d installed, there’s no footage of anyone breaking into the house to kidnap him. Instead, Jake simply walked outside by himself. Jake’s kidnapping is completely different in The Whisper Man book This is where The Whisper Man movie makes one of the biggest changes to the original story. In the novel, Jake isn’t kidnapped until much later, and by this point, Tom has already reconnected with his estranged father Pete (Robert De Niro). Credit: Netflix Tom trusts him enough to babysit Jake while he goes on a date with Karen, another parent from Jake’s school. When Tom returns home, Jake has been taken. But unlike in the film, he wasn’t able to simply walk out of the house unnoticed. Pete was there when the kidnapper arrived and actually tried to stop him. He was stabbed during the struggle and taken to hospital, where he spends much of the remainder of the book. The Netflix adaptation deliberately moves Jake’s kidnapping up to the beginning of the story, something North himself has said “made sense” for the adaptation. It allows Tom to turn to Pete for help after Jake disappears and means the pair can spend much more of the movie searching for him together. But the change also makes Tom come off worse, especially when it comes to his reaction to the creepy letterbox incident. The letterbox scene actually happens in North’s book, with the author saying “he had it in mind” when he was writing it. But in this case, Tom calls the police afterwards (as anyone would). Credit: Netflix In the film, on the other hand, Tom physically sees a stranger reaching through his front door towards his young son but doesn’t report it. It’s pretty jarring, especially given Tom is clearly a caring parent. All that being said, changes were always going to be necessary when adapting North’s hefty novel into a 114-minute movie, and for the most part it works. But if you ever see a mysterious blue-gloved hand reaching through your letterbox, maybe give the police a quick call. For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page. Featured image credit: Netflix Post navigation Next story
