Last night, we watched a fantastic film, Mother and Child, a well-written, touching tale of interlocking stories about three women: Annette Bening is a 51-year old, disillusioned, embittered woman who gave up her daughter for adoption almost four decades ago; Naomi Watts is that daughter grown up, a cold, controlling lawyer having an affair with her boss (Samuel L. Jackson); Kerry Washington is a young wife unable to give birth, clamoring for a daughter, seeking out the help of an adoption agency (run by Cherry Jones). The stories unite in surprising, pleasing ways, and the characters are multi-dimensional and bracingly unsympathetic. Writer-director Rodrigo Garcia (the son of the great novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez) has a steady hand and writes fluid, intelligent dialogue. If the film was released in December rather than in the discarded days of mid May, it would certainly be up for awards (for Garcia, possibly Jackson, and most deservedly for the ever-splendid Bening, the ferociously cool Watts, the wonderful Washington) - alas, it's not, but it's certainly worth seeing.
Right now, I'm reading Patricia Highsmith's Strangers on a Train. I'm crazy about Highsmith and I really enjoy the book... but I don't think it's as enjoyable as the film Hitchcock made out of it. I'm not really attracted to debates about whether a certain book is better or worse than that so-and-so movie made from it... We hear it all the time: "The book is always better." What's better? Define it. How can one adequately compare the merits of two wildly different cognitive experiences? The very nature of reading a book calls for greater absorption, more imaginative immersion - scenes playing out in your head, etc. Film is a less interactive medium and always will be - even if you're 3-Ding it up. Reading is participatory; watching is voyeurism. It's almost unfair to compare...
But since we are comparing... I'll play Devil's Advocate. Here are a lit of movies that are "better" than the books they sprang from:
Forrest Gump
Jaws
Psycho
Silence of the Lambs
Misery
Schindler's List
The Postman Always Rings Twice
The Wizard of Oz
The Bridges of Madison County (okay, I'll confess, I haven't read the book, but I'm going on faith with this one)
The Maltese Falcon
American Psycho
Apocalypse Now
Stand by Me
The Notebook
Frankenstein
L.A. Confidential
These are just but a few. There are cases out there for lots of others (The Godfather, The Shining, It's a Wonderful Life, Sideways, The Manchurian Candidate, Die Hard, A Clockwork Orange, Dances With Wolves, Jackie Brown, Children of Men) but in these cases, I haven't read the book. Can you think of any more?
See ya!
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