Word: novelizations
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Bring a raincoat, or else get soaked by all the tears in Yu Hua's woebegone novel Cries in the Drizzle - originally serialized in a Shanghai literary journal in 1991, but recently published in English for the first time. In this glum and afflicted work, a schoolgirl blubbers when a snowball hits her; an unfaithful husband sobs at his wife's grave; a bride bawls when molested by her father-in-law; and, in the grisliest scene, a son keens into the void after a canine kills and eats his feeble mother...
Atonement, from Ian McEwan's novel, traces the impact of Briony's adolescent decision through World War II (when the girl, then 18, is played by Garai) and up to the present (with Redgrave as Briony, who is finally ready to make her confession). Each period in the film packs a seismic revelation; the ultimate one is both devastating and cleansing...
...those rare literary works that became an addiction for millions of readers, Khaled Hosseini's novel has been filmed most reverently. The movie is the book, with its narrative force and fondness for plot clichés. Amir (Ebrahimi, far right), a child of privilege in Afghanistan, loves to fly kites with his best friend, Hassan (Mahmoodzada), the son of his father's servant. One day Hassan is raped by a bully and his gang, and Amir, who sees the assault, does nothing to stop it. Indeed, he becomes vindictive toward Hassan, leading to many betrayals and reversals that will...
...film has an authentic feel, thanks to its use of Afghan children in the lead roles and dialogue in the native tongue. But at heart it's a Victorian novel transposed to war-torn Afghanistan: Dickens spoken in Dari. Every atrocity endured in childhood will face an equal and opposing vengeance at the end; virtually every major character will reappear later; family relationships are not what they seem. Readers (and viewers) don't love books (and movies) like The Kite Runner in spite of these clichés but because of them. The fierce tidying up of ancient grievances allows...
Forster (Monster's Ball, Stranger Than Fiction) has ingested this elixir deeply. He's not out to make a spare, understated art film; he knows that the novel owes more to Hollywood than to Iranian cinema. So he pushes each scene, each character to extremes. Viewers will either be swept away ennobled or feel manipulated, even as they wipe away tears. The emotions may be forced, but that doesn't mean the movie...