There's a very thin line separating great (or even good) movie adaptations of books from the mediocre ones. And nowhere is the point illustrated better than in the recent releases of "Simon Birch" and "One True Thing."
The former is a rather saccharine drama that has a few decent moments, but it also manages to gloss over the best parts of its source material, John Irving's acclaimed novel "A Prayer for Owen Meany."(In fact, because of the drastic differences between the film script and his book, Irving requested that filmmaker Mark Steven Johnson change the names of the characters, as well as the title of the movie.)
On the other hand, though it's certainly flawed (the script is extremely superficial), the film version of Anna Quindlen's novel "One True Thing" is much more successful, thanks to a bravura performance by the always-wonderful Meryl Streep.
Both movies try to accomplish the same thing: wring tears from audience members through tragedy. What ultimately separates the two, however, is a terrific cast, which makes up for some obvious inadequacies.
Of course, "Simon Birch" may have been doomed to failure. None of the previous adaptations of Irving books have been great (of the bunch, only the uneven "The World According to Garp" could even be called good).
Interestingly, Irving is taking matters into his own hands with the upcoming comedy-drama "The Cider House Rules," to be directed by Lasse Halstrom ("What's Eating Gilbert Grape"). Irving is planning to write the adaptation himself.
However, the same can't be said of the upcoming adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkein's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy or Kurt Vonnegut's irreverent "Breakfast of Champions," which will not be written by the authors. Those movies could go either way, given the filmmakers involved - Peter Jackson ("The Frighteners") and Alan Rudolph ("Afterglow"), respectively.
One paper-to-celluloid adaptation that couldn't help but be better than the source is the upcoming thriller "A Simple Plan," based on Scott B. Smith's extremely overrated best seller.
(Actually, after several successful test screenings of the film, which stars Bill Paxton, Bridget Fonda and Billy Bob Thornton, Paramount Pictures is now touting "A Simple Plan" as an Oscar contender. This, despite the fact that it comes from notorious style-over-substance horror director Sam Raimi!)
- THE FRENCH LOVE JERRY LEWIS, BUT THEY'RE NOT SO FOND OF MICKEY MOUSE: As if the controversy over its domestic partners benefits program and the recent string of awful live-action comedies wasn't bad enough, Disney has received a real black eye - almost literally - overseas.
Performers at the Euro Disney theme park, just outside Paris, recently sent a letter to the French government's labor investigator demanding that additional security guards be hired.
It seems that French youngsters have taken to punching and pinching the park's "greeters," who are dressed to look like popular Disney characters.
In fact, in an Aug. 20 incident, the actors playing Mickey and Minnie Mouse had to be rescued by police officers from a horde of overly aggressive children.
"Tigger, too, left the park of his own accord after being hit several times," the letter states.
Can you imagine what might have happened if the actors had been dressed as some really annoying Disney characters, like Donald Duck's mischievous nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, or the mouthy Pumbaa (from "The Lion King")?
- QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "I'm sure somebody is cooking on that, but not me. I mean, how old could these two guys - the lead characters - be? It would be like senior citizens action movies. But hey, maybe there's a whole new market for that." - Actor Mel Gibson, on the possibility that he might star in a fifth "Lethal Weapon" film.