Wednesday, August 19, 2009

The Time Traveller's Wife

I got back from France at 5:30 yesterday morning, and promptly went to bed. Later that day, Lady Chocolat and I went to see "The Time Traveller's Wife".

It's quite a good film, but I'm not going to recommend anyone goes to see it. Read the book instead - it is much better.

The fundamental problem is that the book is very long, very dense, and quite complex. Boiling all that down to a sub-2-hour movie is a nigh impossible task, and has resulting in some very heavy cuts to the material, to the extent that two significant secondary characters from the book are reduced to being almost entirely peripheral in the film, while a third (very important) one is removed almost entirely. Basically, it's the same problem that has affected every "Harry Potter" film since "Goblet of Fire" - there's just not enough time for everything that is essential.

In the next few days, I'll post again about my holiday in France, and also about the lasagne I cooked this evening. For now, though, I'm enjoying my last evening of freedom before going back to work.

#36: "Pathfinder: The Impossible Eye", by Greg A. Vaughan
#37: "The Pirate King", by R.A. Salvatore
#38: "Emperor: The Gods of War", by Conn Iggulden
#39: "The Book Thief", by Markus Zusak (best novel of the year to date, by the way)

1 comment:

Captain Ric said...

"The Book Thief" is a great name for the title of a book.