Movies Adaptations that were better than their Books (about the randomly capitalised words... I'm lazy)

I started writing this yesterday - because I was thinking about The Hunger Games and the more I think about the books the better I like the movie - but got bored because, as it turns out, I don't watch a lot of movies based on books? And 98% of the time the book is better than the movie anyway, so this list was challenging to make for many reasons. Also, it seems that a lot of movies I watch are just not very good movies. Or children's movies. Or period films.


Chocolat by Joanne Harris

Why was the movie better? Weeeell...
One thing I appreciate about movies is their aesthetic: since film is a visual media a director has far more power over the look of the world they create and I hugely appreciate director Lasse Hallström's decision (if it was his decision) to move the film's chronology from the 80s/90s to the 50s. The clothes, colours, decor and culture just add so much to the film's whimsical magic.
I also greatly appreciate the changes that were made character-wise: instead of the village priest being the film's antagonist, he is a young, weak but rather adorable Father who is just a little too easily ordered about by the real villain and splendidly portrayed mayor of the town, whose vulnerabilities and tragic history are presented with far more sympathy than anything Harris originally dreamed up. The main character, Vianne, is also a lot more stable and a wiser, kinder woman in the film: I may be prejudiced but I am eternally thankful that the filmmakers chose to ditch the theme of 'good' witchcraft vs 'evil' Christianity. In comparison I would deem the book somewhat mean-spirited and meandering when held up next to the movie's redemptive message. (Also, I want all of Juliette Binoche's wardrobe from this film!)

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

There isn't really very much that Cabot's book series has in common with the 2001 film of the same name. Which is all to the good of the film. (Don't ask me about the second movie though. It was a sad cash cow suffering a bad case of sequelitis) Suffice it to say that the movie is better than any of the books. Julie Andrews can make almost anything better.

About a Boy by Nick Hornby

This is actually a pretty close one - both the book and the movie are pretty good and entertaining in their own way, but the movie nudges ahead in my estimation simply because of its ending and its treatment of the central theme of growing up. Growing up is sort of the most important idea behind the story, which deals with Will, the manchild, and Marcus, the uncool little boy, who both need to grow up in different ways. What I didn't like was the implication at the end of the book that growing up necessarily means assimilating - that awkward kids must just learn to be like everybody else. The movie didn't do that. The movie let Marcus stay his own little awkward adorable self - only plus friends.

 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Again, only marginally. I love both the book and the movie but there were things in the book that annoyed me, as described here.

Haha, these lists just get less and less detailed as they go on, don't they? That's either because I write about the things I want to write about first and leave the ones about which I have less to say for last - or I get bored and peter out. I think I've petered out.