The new "East of the Mountains" movie is based on the best-selling novel by David Guterson, the author of "Snow Falling on Cedars." David Guterson lives in Washington State.

Had the widower Ben Givens executed his plan early in “East of the Mountains,” it would have made a very short movie. Instead, Ben (Tom Skerritt) reconsiders killing himself in the home he and his wife shared and decides to stage a hunting accident.

With his sweet spaniel and a shotgun, Ben drives east, away from Seattle and away from his daughter (Mira Sorvino), who doesn’t know he has cancer, toward the land of his youth. Washington’s Columbia River basin is a vast terrain rife with shrub, sageland and grassland, apple orchards and memories.

During World War II in Italy, Ben was inspired to become a heart surgeon when his friend was shot in the chest and dying. In the field hospital, Ben is pressed to assist in the operating tent. Ben watches, awestruck, as the surgeon reaches into his friend's open chest and gently, rhythmically massages his heart.

"The heart is a pump," the surgeon told Ben. There's a pulse. Life. Ben's friend survives the operation and goes on to live a full life.

The story is set in Eastern Washington, east of where I live. I recognize the area: the Columbia River, Vantage, George, Frenchman Hills, Royal Slope and Babcock Hills, WA.

The book is a profound, joyful achievement. It's not about the courage it takes to die; but the courage it takes to live.

I hope the movie has the novel's heart, intensity and intelligence.