I haven’t read the book, but I am reliably informed that this film bore little resemblance to the book. Now, we all know (or you would if you’d done a screenwriting course) that books do not and cannot be translated exactly to the screen, it just doesn’t work – for a multitude of reasons I’m not going into on here. That being said, the film should follow the book as closely as it can.
I may not have read the book, but I did see the trailer. Having watched the film, I have to wonder whether they’ve released the wrong version of the film….in error. Most of what you see in the trailer is NOT in the film.
Given I haven’t read the book, you might be wondering what I found so terrible about the film……
Well, to start with, the main character – Harry Hole – was such a weak and pathetic character, that I had no respect for him during the film at all. They neglected to give you any backstory as to why he was such a pathetic drunk who was quite content to collapse in the street and stay there. Sorry, but if you are going to do this, you need to tell us why!
The second biggest issue was that it was disjointed. Whoever edited this film needs to be shot. Nothing fitted together, especially at the beginning. Scenes should flow into one another making the film capable of being followed. With this film, I got the impression that all the scenes had been cut into little pieces and mixed up and then just stuck together in whichever order they’d been picked up. Appalling!
My last major gripe is about the ‘baddie’. If I thought Hole was pathetic, then the ‘baddie’ is even more so. There was no sense of fear or foreboding coming from him. He was someone who you could call a name and he would cry. I’m not sure if this is just the casting or not, but it didn’t work for me. Why? Because it wasn’t believable that he could overpower and kill anyone, irrespective of whether he had his little device with him.
I could vent forever, but I won’t.
In summary, this film was an insult to the author and I would highly recommend you don’t waste your money. Sorry Michael, but you really should choose your scripts better!!