By Kimberly Walsh (a.k.a. @AliasGrace)
Here at the CBC Book Club we like our Top 10 lists. Usually, we highlight the best. It's no different this month as we ask you to submit your fave film adaptations of beloved books, but this time we're also asking what belongs on the bottom 10 — the adaptations that you think were the worst ever.
It seems to me that books are increasingly being adapted for the big screen. Naturally, there's been spillover onto the smaller screen too with shows like True Blood, based on Charlaine Harris's (a.k.a. the Southern Vampire series) featuring Sookie Stackhouse, being fodder for watercooler talk on Monday mornings. I must admit, I am a fan.
Currently, I'm also watching The Pillars of the Earth. I quite literally had a ZOMG! outburst when I first saw the trailer last month because I had no clue that this epic tome by Ken Follett was being turned into an even more epic television series. The book? Amazing. The cast? Phenomenal.
But enough about TV. Some of my fave silver screen adaptations, in no particular order, are:
Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist: Talk to me again after Hollywood (man)handles the source material.
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje: Because the poetry of writing isn't lost on screen.
Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi: It's like the book, only the pictures move and talk!
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier: Hitchcock, arguably at his best.
Atonement by Ian McEwan: What can I say? I'm a sucker for British accents and period costumes.
And the worst?
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: Do yourself a favour and just watch the BBC series from the '70s.
Dracula by Bram Stoker: Keanu Reeves + fake English accent = nuff said.
The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown: You know you're doing it wrong when it takes longer to watch the movie than to read the book. In terms of unnecessary length, it puts Lord of the Rings: Return of the King to shame. And, seriously, what was up with Tom Hanks's hair?
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss: Ditto except replace Tom Hanks with Mike Myers. Also: way to ruin a childhood memory.
Contact by Carl Sagan: I fell asleep somewhere between the scene where Jodie Foster was trying to make first contact and the one where Jodie Foster was trying to make first contact. I'm sorry if I'm skeptical that something interesting might have actually happened on screen during that time.
Missing from the list: The Time Traveler's Wife which I can't even bring myself to watch because it's one of my favourite books and the reviews of the movie were just so mixed that I've simply written it off sight unseen.
Now it's your turn. What are your fave adaptations? And which flicks made you wish you could get a refund on time wasted?
