I watched this last night. One thing that intrigued me was that several characters had a different first or last name than the one in the book.

David Nash --> Harry Nash

Thomas Ira Gault --> Jonathan Ira Gault

Julie Webster Gault --> Lisa [something other than Webster] Gault

Larry Stafford --> Philip Stafford

Burt Ortiz --> Burt Matson

Darlene Hersh --> Marjorie "Marge" Hersh

(I don't have a copy of the book handy, and I don't recall if it's spelled Hersh, Hirsch, Hersch, or some other way.)

Jennifer Stafford was referred to as Jenny Stafford in the movie, but that only reflects the use of a common nickname for a given name. There may have been others, but these were the ones I caught.

Is there any particular reason why this was done?