I really enjoyed the adaptations of:
Perfume by Patrick Suskind
Atonement by Ian McEwan I preferred the book for the first half, but the movie for the second half.
The Virgin Suicides by
Jeffrey Eugenides. It could never live up to the book, but still good.
The Prestige by Christopher Priest. One of the few occasions were I preferred the movie. I liked the changes Nolan made to the story.
High Fidelity by
Nick Hornby. An average book, but an enjoyable movie.
I'm currently reading Blindness by Jose Saramago, and I like it a lot. I hope the movie does it justice.
In general I think the British are better at this than we are in the US. The movies of
Howard's End,
A Month in the Country, and
Cold Comfort Farm, among others, were all very good. The Russian version of
War and Peace is amazing.
Various TV series, again more European than US, have been good at recreating the books, including the BBC series of the The Raj Quarter,
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and
Smiley's People, and the German TV series of
Buddenbrooks and The Magic Mountain.
On the whole, I find most US movie versions of books I love disappointing, and generally avoid them.
And then there are movies that are much better than the books, most notably
The Godfather, both I and II.
>2 I'll second
The Virgin Suicides - I would have considered that book nearly un-adaptable between the collective narrator and the near-courtroomish presentation of evidence. I think she did the absolute best presentation that could be done.
About a Boy is one of my favorite Hornby adaptations. It's fairly straightforward and they could have ruined it about sixty different ways.
Into the Wild did add a bit to the story, but I think it captured the spirit that the book was looking for - if it had been the book in whole, it would have been these random flashbacks of other explorers.
Misery usually gets left out of favorite Stephen King adaptions (people love Shawshank, but they changed quite a bit from the story), but this one was really, really good. And whenever folks want to know just how Kathy Bates got into movies anyway - this is the one!
Persepolis was a beautifully done animated film. The first part is nearly shot-for-shot, while the second part does depart a bit, but I think that was to protect family a bit.
And one that doesn't match the book in any real sense -
The Orchid Thief was famously made into
Adaptation where the movie becomes all about how hard the book is to actually adapt into a movie (there are pieces of the book all over the movie). It's actually a really great read and one immediately sees where John LaRoche is a character you want on screen. You also see why it's impossible to make into a movie. :)
I generally steer clear of adaptations - if I enjoyed the book, then I usually seem to hate the film! The exceptions are
Hotel New Hampshire - the film was just as wonderfully bizarre as the book - and
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I didn't think that book could be filmed, but it was exactly right (IMHO).
2 -
For the movie Blindness it is tough to say whether or not it was done justice. Due to the nature of the book (I won't say much since I don't know how far in you are in), it's a hard novel to translate. I'm glad I saw it but I wouldn't see it again and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
Gone with the Wind - named my daughter Scarlett, if she had been a boy would have named her Rhett... (yep, am sad, must get a life!!)
ditto, Middlemarch, North and South, Bleak House - the good old BBC are a class act.
The BBC Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle adaptation of
Pride and Prejudice remains the best of the many done, although I also enjoyed the Keira Knightly one.
The Virgin Suicides and Gone with the Wind. Admittedly, there were a lot of changes between GWTW the book and the movie, but I still think it was a pretty great adaption.
I need to read What's Eating Gilbert Grape, because the movie is outstanding and I'd like to see if the book compares to that.
The Horse Whisperer. There were ways in which the book was far better than the movie. But the movie was fairly close to the spirit of the book, and it had such amazing visual impact. The cinematography was even better than the pictures my mind had painted.
The Princess Bride was perfect. Of course the author of the book was a screenwriter, so that may have helped.
Let the Right One In, and I'm talking about the most recent version. I am convinced that the American version (which will be called "Let Me In") is going to be absolutely horrible.
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