The Road book vs movie

I went to see the movie The Road on black Friday. I had to go to Winter Park just to see this movie, but it didn't matter. I had read the book and seeing the trailer for the movie got me excited. There were a few differences in the movie from the book. First of all there were more memories of the mom in the movie than in the book. But of course they needed to make up something so we could see more of Charlize Theron, who played the mom. The scene were they are by the house that the boy sees another little boy, the dad picks up something and out flew a beetle. That was not in the book at all, and to my understanding everything was dead in the book. I think they added that in th emovie as a sign of hope that they can survive. Also added into the movie was a scene where the father throws his wedding ring and a picture of his wife over the bridge. I feel that symbolized him finally letting her go. The boat scene in the book where the father finds the map and the flare gun was not in the movie. You do see him swim to the boat but the movie never showed what he was actually doing inside, he just shows back up with the flare gun. I enjoyed the book more than the movie. I think I went into the theater expecting so much more. I went with my mom and I had her read the book too before we went to see it and she agrees with me that the book was better. As I was reading the book I played each scene out in my head and the movie wasn't quite what I thought it would be. I loved Viggo Mortenson's performance and Charlize Theron was great and of course beautiful. I think they could have chose a better actor to play the little boy. I'm not sure I believed him so much. He wasn't horrible but I was expecting him to not just play the role of the little boy but actually become the little boy. Honestly, the movie didn't hold my attention like the book did. I found myself drifting to sleep at times. I've never seen a movie that was better than the book and The Road was definitely no exception.