Discounting "IT WAS ME!!!" -- I'll chalk it up to a technical glitch.
Regardless, here is quick rewrite of my previous post.
Several years ago I purchased the book by Christopher Priest -- and I was immensely impressed by it. I leant it to my friends, and was enthused when one of them discovered a movie was to be made -- particularly one with cast and crew in good standing. But my enthusiasm was tempered by cynical experience -- most movies based on literature tend to be warped and dumbed down versions of the original. Ultimately, all I could do was approach the film -- as best as I could -- as its own entity, outside the demarcations of the source material.
Having done so, I was disappointed with the film. The cast was comprised of brilliant actors -- many of whom were completely miscast within the context of the movie. The plot and characters were driven by melodramatic turns, rather than any sense of genuine motivation. And while many decry the fantastical nature of the movie as a failure, I do not -- I see the one dimensional characters, painful plot twists and logical goofs as the chief problems. The ending of the film deviates from the book, but -- like so many films that attempt to culminate in a twist -- is painfully obvious and disappointing. In short, it felt silly.
There are some good aspects, to be certain. The cinemaphotography was superb -- the lighting magnificnet -- the sets brililant. But the story...
Yeah, so I tried to seperate the movie from the book and failed. The book is simply a vastly superior beast. And finally, you have to wonder about many of the decisions and liberties the movie took with the story -- liberties that weakened the story, weakened the characters, and diffused a great deal of the tension and awe. It felt emotionally cheapened. More shocking to me is how unnecessary many of the changes were -- the original material could fit within the silver screen quite readily, without much pruning. Leaving that intact, the movie would have become more of a head-trip, but also multidimensional: the revenge theme would continue and be improved by all the other themes.
Some of the ideas of the book I suspect are simply too disturbing -- on a superficial level -- for Hollywood. Otherwise, I suspect they believe the audience is not sophisticated enough to follow a story with greater depth.
So if you liked the movie, I heartily recommend you pick up a copy of the book. Comparitively speaking, the film is drivel.
But this really is the last straw. For some time I've been thinking about the reliance that cinema has on other source material. Previously, literature was its great pool -- but now, almost equally, comic books are the basis for many modern films. And frankly, I do not understand it. Why, when a story has reached fruition in a particular medium, would anyone want to translate it into film? What compells a director, or anyone involved in the process, to take a book and say: "That was great! I'll make a movie about it, so that people can see the book as I imagined it!" Utterly puzzling to me.
Not that there is a lack of successful adapatations of other books. Sin City was good in the context of its source material (if nothing else), and I would suggest that Jackson's Rings Trilogy is better than the original... The recently released Illusionist, is a good example of a successful conversion. But in the Illusionist's case, it wasn't a novel, but a short-story that served as the germ; a literary skeleton which the film simply fleshed out a bit. Its a fine story and made a good movie -- again, relying on a twist ending which is too obvious to succeed as such.
On another note, I was impressed by The Departed. While the ending falls apart and spoils much of the film, it does succesfully create a superb sense of anxiety in a tight game of cat and mouse. The ending devolves into comedic deus ex machina madness.
The best film I've seen in some time, however, has to be Brick. Its film-noir transplanted into a high-school. Combining the surreal and dark nature of type of film, with the angst of the average high-school student, works particularly well. Recently released to DVD.
I'm glad you liked the movie. The movie will not spoil the book. The book has greater tricks, but does not rely on a twist. The book wants you to anticipate the finale, and in so doing, you approach it with a dread of expectation -- fulfilled in all its spookiness. Reading is fundamental
