(Musing Mondays is a meme hosted by Should Be Reading. Just click on the image to share your answer to this week’s musing!)
This week’s musing is: “Do you like movies made from books? Which ones do you think have been done well — kept mostly to the plot of the book, etc.?”
My musing
I actually managed to list seven good book-to-film adaptations in my Top 10 Tuesday: Adaptations post from a few months ago, but sometimes these things bear repeating.
Hands down the best book-to-film adaptation I’ve ever seen is the 1995 film version of Pride and Prejudice. No one but Colin Firth could pull off the Mr. Darcy’s mix of arrogance and kindness; and Jennifer Ehle is a picture-perfect Elizabeth. It was made for television, so more of the book could be adapted. Don’t even get me started on the Kiera Knightley debacle.
Although “The Count of Monte Cristo” was wildly different from the book, it’s still a blast of a movie. The acting is great, the one-liners are amazing, and that ending? Fabulous.
Last on my list is the 1994 adaptation of one of my favorite books, Little Women. The filmmakers got a surprising amount of the plot into a two-hour movie, and the casting was superb. I’m pretty sure that Christian Bale (as Laurie Laurence) was my first crush.
What are some of your favorite book-to-film adaptations?
I thought the version of P & P that you mention was truest to the literal interpretation of the book, but I felt that the 1940 version with Laurence Olivier captured the spirit of the book best. As I was reading the book I felt that I was reading a very subtle comedy but I wasn’t totally sure, Then when I saw the 1940 version I realized that P & P is a quite funny comic romance in 19th century style. It’s a great story.
I agree that The Count of Monte Cristo (recent version) is a mighty fun and wonderful film. I’ve never read the book, but my wife was familiar with it and was very satisfied with the film interpretation.
Lee
Tossing It Out–Five Favorite Books
I’ve never seen the Olivier version, but you’re definitely right about the subtle humor — I think of it as a modern interpretation of Much Ado About Nothing, where you’re pretty much giggling the whole way through. I’ll add the film to my Netflix list right now (God bless technology!).
I saw the movie long before I worked up the courage to read Dumas’ original work. It’s a chunkster, and there’s a lot more going on in the novel than there was room for in the film. Just talking about it makes me want to watch the movie again.