Welcome to another Road Trip Wednesday, a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway posts a weekly writing- or reading-related question and anyone can answer it on their own blogs. Check out their post for links to other Highwayers’ answers!
This week’s topic is:
What movie have you seen that actually (gasp!) improved on the book?
For me, the 2001 film version of Bridget Jones Diary is what comes to mind immediately as a film I would recommend before the book. I will confess to having seen the movie first (and isn’t it typical to enjoy the first version of anything you read/see/hear?), but made a point to read the book last summer because I’d heard such great things about it. And it was many things: hilarious, silly, extra- super- crazy-British, totally worth reading. But I thought the movie got rid of some things that were extraneous to the story (the strange “missing friend who may or may not have hurt themselves” episode), and added incidents that raised the stakes for Bridget’s ultimate romantic quandary.
I promise you that it had almost everything only something to do with the choice of Colin Firth as a heart-meltingly perfect Darcy. It did enhance the entire Bridget Jones universe for me to realize that Colin Firth the actor was mentioned in the book for his romance with Pride and Prejudice costar Jennifer Ehle.
And now I want to watch the movie again! It’s such a perfect sick-day, quick pick-me-up flick.
So what about you?? Any movies come to mind that you enjoyed more than their book form?
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
I actually like them fairly equally, mostly because I enjoy them in different ways. The book is (to me) more laugh-out-loud funny than the movie, but the movie has an earnest sweetness that I really like that doesn’t come across at all in Bridget’s cynical writing.
The movie I do like better than the book is Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho. The movie is HYSTERICAL. The book is…unreadable.
I’m not someone who necessarily minds when movie adaptations take liberties with the source material, providing the movie adaptation can stand on its own. Case in point: Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame. I love the book, and I love the movie (despite its flaws–oh god, the gargoyles, WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY).
You’re so right about the earnest sweetness. It was possible to get an outsider’s perspective on Bridget in the movie that was (obviously) impossible in the book—for me that made it more clear WHY the two men were fighting over her, in a way. The book was still absolutely hilarious in that unmistakable British way!
And I have to say, I don’t know that I would ever attempt to read American Psycho. The movie did such a great job, and based on what I’ve read about what BEE had problems with in the adaptation, his book is… not for me. You’ve closed the deal for me on that!
And I totally agree about the movie adaptations. Actually one of my biggest critiques about The Hunger Games movie was that it almost stuck TOO close to the book, scene for scene. I like when the same source material is used to maximize the medium, you know? It’s fun to see interpretations.
I actually thought the Hunger Games adaptation was decent, but once it entered the games, that’s when it faltered. All the stuff that we DIDN’T see in the book (the District 11 riots, the conversations between Seneca Crane–and his beard–with President Snow) was FANTASTIC though.
I think Watchmen is a perfect example of a movie cleaving too close to the source material. The only part of Watchmen that’s good is the 5 minute opening.
I would actually recommend the second Bridget Jones book! It gives both Bridge and Mark Darcy character development, and Daniel Cleaver is nowhere to be found…
I would say I liked this movie as much as the book…they’re both great…agreed on the Colin Firth thing and the strength of his link to P & P.
I think I did like the second book better than the second movie though.
Oh the second movie was so terrible! It made me hesitant about the second book, but sounds like I might want to check that out?
Hi Sarah, thanks for stopping by my blog today! I love yours! I also have to say I’ve never read the Bridget books or seen the movies so I don’t know if I can contribute that much. I have heard the book is REALLY funny and that the movie is great. Colin Firth is a great actor (though he isn’t my mental image of Mr. Darcy in P&P), and I also love Renee. I guess I’ll have to put this on the viewing queue :)
You are so welcome, and thank you!! I love finding new blogs through RTW :) And OH! You have to watch the movie. The next time you find yourself home alone for the evening, or home sick from work, curl up and watch it! (Agree that CF is better for this Darcy than the P&P version!)
I haven’t actually read the book despite thinking for years now that I should. I loved the movie, though. But who couldn’t love Colin Firth in a Christmas sweater?! So great. :)
The Christmas sweater!! So classic.
I’ve seen the movie, but not read the book. It is a good, funny movie that was cast perfectly. On the whole, you’re probably right that we tend to have a soft spot for the first version of something we read/see/hear (my SecondBorn has a natural aversion to cover versions of songs–especially when she knows the original), but one exception I can think of is the James Bond novel FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. I’d seen the movie a number of times before I read the book, and I think the book is better. Especially the train scene near the end where Bond battles the bad guy. I thought the way the scene played out in the book was a lot more suspenseful.
Ooh! I’ve never read a Bond book—that would be an interesting experience, based on how visually we’ve come to perceive James Bond as a culture. I do think the idea of preferring things we’ve heard/seen/read first is a really interesting one!
Another movie to add to my growing list. I have never seen Bridget Jones Diary. However, you had me at Colin Firth.
If you like Colin Firth you are going to have a BLAST watching this movie. Seriously.
I just watched this last night! :) I love that movie, and you are right, the movie was better than the book. It’s been a while since I read it, but it doesn’t stand out for me in the same way that the movie does. Colin Firth might have everything to do with that.
Might possibly, potentially, probably, definitely have everything to do with Colin Firth. LOL
I never read the book but I can imagine that it could only be made better with Colin Firth in real, live color!
I mean Colin Firth could make ANY book more pleasant to watch on-screen, you know?
I loved Bridget Jones’ Diary. I could actually fall for this Mr Darcy rather than the one he played in Pride and Prejudice. I must get my hands on the book at some point. A couple of my favourite chick flicks are adaptations and I haven’t read the book version.
I bought the book version as a beach read, and it was completely perfect for that! A fun, breezy read that took no time at all. I would say it’s definitely still worth reading!
Oh, GREAT call. I can’t count how many times I watched this movie in college. LOVE.
And it has just occurred to me that I don’t own the movie on DVD! Who am I??
Colin Firth. Almost everything said there :P
I read the book and enjoyed it but like you I watched the movie first. I actually remember going to the theater with my best friend, we were both without boyfriends at the time, at the university and we LOVED that movie! :D
I *tried* to read the book, but wasn’t feeling it. LOVED the movie.
You know, I LOVE Colin Firth as Mark Darcy…but I ADORE Hugh Grant as Daniel Cleaver. Up until that point, I never really “got” what people found sexy about Hugh Grant. He seemed sort of bumbly and his hair reminded me of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast. After this movie, though? TOTALLY got it.
Good choice. Colin Firth does make a movie v. enjoyable ;)
I’ve never read this book but I loved the movie and loved Colin Firth and thought it was awesome that he was exactly who the author pictured when she wrote the character.
I read this book in a feminist lit class, of all places, and despised it. But that might have been because of the intense argument I had with another girl about Bridget’s weight obsession and my classmate’s insistence that 130 pounds could be super fat because we don’t know how tall Bridget it. Oh dear. As I’ve gotten older and more able to appreciate books in that “this doesn’t have to be making a statement” kind of way, I’ve reread and been amused by the book. I’m not sure I liked the movie past Colin Firth though. Oh! And Perpetua’s altered love story.
Bridget Jones’s Diary was a gateway book for me, introducing me to the amazing, funny world of Brit-Chick-Lit. I devoured the books and every other book of this nature at the time.
I’m not a huge Renee Zellweger fan, but I thought the movie was great (ummm, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth? If you say so!)
My daughter, who is five, has a saying: Ketchup makes everything better.
I, too, have a saying: Colin Firth makes everything better. Or Hugh Grant, depending on my mood.
Agreed! I, too, saw the movie before reading the book, but I still think I would’ve enjoyed the movie more had it been the other way around. It focused on her romantic quandary, and filtered out some of the extraneous (like simplifying her mom’s … ehh … break down). And YES, Colin Firth never hurts.