The Fabric of Civilization: How Textiles Made the World by Virginia Postrel Four and 1/2 Stars: nonfiction, aspects of life you never considered before I loved this book. Virginia Postrel covers a piece of civilization that affects us every day yet we rarely think about: textiles. Or fabric, to use a more common term. It’s […]
(This review is part of Teresa Peschel’s Agatha Christie movie project. Read more about it at the above link.) Fidelity to text: 2 garrotes. The producers made dozens of changes from irritating but minor (main character names) to wholesale rewrites. The Funnybones theatrical troupe is completely new. So are the dramatic changes to Gwenda’s mother […]
Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book by Courtney Maum Two Sparkers; nonfiction, help for writers but not in terms of craft. As part of my continuing education as an indie writer, I read books about the business of writing. After all, anyone can […]
Fidelity to text: 3 1/2 knives For an 80-minute-long film, they crammed most of the story in. Regrettably, they omitted two major plot points. Even more regrettably, Austin Trevor must be the worst Poirot ever. He’s tall, lean, and doesn’t have a mustache. I thought he was supposed to be Hastings as the actor playing […]
The Lost City: Discovering the Forgotten Virtues of Community in the Chicago of the 1950s by Alan Ehrenhalt Four sparklers; nonfiction, contemporary social history, American culture I’ve always been interested in why we do what we do as a culture. What is community? What is acceptable behavior? What has changed in the last seventy years? […]
Fidelity to text: 1/2 gun. There are similar incidents, particularly a young boy being shot by another young boy with a bow and arrow. Otherwise, nothing, zip, nada, not even the names match and for good reason, too. Quality of movie on its own: 1/2 gun. The house looks great! It’s a piece of Modernist […]
Fidelity to text: One gun. As in the previous Partners in Crime adaptation (The Secret Adversary), the names matched. Everything else, large and small, was altered and nearly always for the worse. Quality of movie on its own: One and 1/2 guns. The sets were outstanding as were the wardrobes. We laughed often, sometimes when […]
A Murder is Announced Geraldine McEwan January 2005 review Fidelity to text: 3 guns. You’ll get both major and minor changes, the biggest being complete rewrites of three separate relationships along with discarding the Vicar, his wife, and their cat. That forced the screenwriter to come up with a different, less plausible reason for Miss […]
(Note: You may also see this titled What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw! That’s the title used in the American market since the British publishers believed that Americans wouldn’t recognize the railway reference in the title.) Fidelity to text: 2 1/2 garottes The screenwriter made a lot of changes. The largest, without a doubt, is reworking the […]
Fidelity to text: 3 guns. The overall storyline is there. However, the scriptwriters chose to insert an unnecessary, even egregious backstory for Miss Marple. Um, no. Just no. There were other issues as well, some relating to changing the date from 1930 (when the novel was published) to 1951. Quality of movie on its own: […]