Sunday Salon: When they turn a great book into a movie…

Sunday Salon: When they turn a great book into a movie…

It’s been awhile since I participated in the Sunday Salon but it’s one of the items I’ve added to my goals list for the second half of 2010 because it’s a pastime I used to really enjoy.

This week I finally got around to watching the movie My Sister’s Keeper and it seemed like the perfect topic for TSS this week.

If you haven’t read the book or watched the movie then be careful reading this post as it may contain spoilers…

I can’t quite remember but I think My Sister’s Keeper was the very first Jodi Picoult book I ever read, and I do remember being captivated by the story from start to finish. As with all of Jodi’s novels MSK is a moral dilemma. When Kate develops a rare form of leukaemia her parents have a “designer baby” to give Kate a chance at life. Anna is that baby, and from birth she helps her sister by donating umbilical cord blood and bone marrow. Over the years Anna has several operations and hospital stays as the family try to save Kate.

When Anna turns 11 Kate needs a kidney transplant and Anna must serve the purpose she was born for and donate her kidney.

At this point Anna hires herself a lawyer and sues her parents for medical emancipation for the chance to make decisions about her own body.

I won’t tell you what happens next in case you haven’t read the novel but I thought the film stayed pretty true to the book. Jodi writes most of her novels from the viewpoint of the various different characters and I thought this worked really well in the book with each character doing the voice overs for their chapters. To be honest I thought that they would change that bit, so it surprises me that having mastered the “tricky” part of the book to movie exercise they then couldn’t handle ending the story as it was written.

Now I knew that the end of the movie had been changed because I heard Jodi speak at an event a couple of months back. Someone asked her how she felt about it and she said that is the most popular question she is asked these days. She compared handing a book over to a movie producer as giving a baby up for adoption. She said once you have signed the papers you are no longer allowed to be involved and you just have to hope that they raise your baby right. She went on to say that many years later, when you hear about your child there are two things that could happen. Firstly you find out that they are happy and successful in life and were raised by a kind and loving family. Alternatively you discover that your child was raised by a crack whore… and that’s how she feels about the movie’s ending!

Of course my memory is not great and when I was watching the film I couldn’t really remember what happened in the book so I took it on it’s own merits and thought the movie was really good. As I said the character voices were delivered really well and the acting was brilliant and of course I cried buckets towards the end. If I’d never read the book I would not have been disappointed by the film.

But I had read the book, and I wanted to know what “really happened” so the next day I dug out the book and flicked through to the end. And then I remembered what Jodi had penned for the ending. And I realised that the change the movie producers had made had completely changed the point of the story! I have no idea what made them switch out the ending but it just makes no sense when you know how it should end. The moral dilemma that Jodi was examining loses it’s edge somehow.

I do now feel a compelling wish to re-read the book just to see what else they fiddled with. But the whole experience has made me wonder why movie big wigs even bother paying for the rights to bestselling books if they can’t then recreate the message of the story as it was intended.

What do you think? Have you ever looked forward to seeing one of your favourite novels brought to life on the big screen only to wish that you’d stuck to the original? If you scroll down the page a little way you can let me know your thoughts in the comments box.

My Sister’s Keeper Movie Trailer

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiOWevDj1mw&feature=player_embedded

Join the discussion:

1. 

   Clare D

   August 29, 2010 Reply

   Hi Clare: first – excellent name , second equally excellent review of the book – although I’m afraid the book was not actually to my taste. (I know I am virtually alone in this because I read it as part of a book group and everyone else loved it! I thought the voices were too similar (cf Poisonwood Bible) and I disliked the sensationalist topic.)

   I have also seen the film (on a long flight – it isn’t one I would have deliberately seen because of my dislike of the book) and like you thought they did a good job.

   In answer to your very interesting question: Usually I don’t like seeing a film of a book because they mess around with the firm picture I have of the characters in my head, but there is one film which I actually liked better than the original book and that is the TV film of Longitude by Dava Sobel. I liked both – but I thought the ‘other story’ in the film was thought-provoking and well acted.

   • 

     Clare Swindlehurst

     August 29, 2010 Reply

     Hey Clare thanks for stopping by. I haven’t come across Longitude before but I’ll have to check out the book and the film.

     You are right about films messing around with the way you picture the characters. I really struggled with the Harry Potter movies but now when I read the books I just picture the actors lol

2. 

   alisonwonderland

   August 29, 2010 Reply

   My Sister’s Keeper was the first of Picoult’s books that I read, and I really liked it. The ending blew me away. When I saw the film version on DVD, I’d already heard that the ending had been changed, so I expected that – but wasn’t happy with it. I did think that the movie was well-done, unlike some book-to-movie adaptations that I thought ruined the book – but I guess that happy endings are what Hollywood likes best.

   • 

     Clare Swindlehurst

     August 30, 2010 Reply

     Hi Alison, I agree that Hollywood goes for much for the Happy Ending but I guess I wouldn’t call the movie ending a happy ending in this case. Maybe that’s why I feel they just shouldn’t have messed with it.

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