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>>>I can't say how much of that is the novel, or the focus of the filmmakers.<<<
I recently finished reading the novel and the film is, with a few small exceptions, a remarkably faithful and literal adaptation.
The thing I find slightly bothersome about NCfOM getting all the praise that it does, being called the Coens' best film (as I've read in many reviews), is that it's a very close adaptation of someone else's story. This isn't a reinterpretation, the way Kubrick would take a novel and re-jig it to fit his own thematic concerns, this is a story filmed pretty much as it is in the novel. It's done exceedingly well, I loved it, but I am nostalgic for the days when the Coens would create their own characters and plots. Their last three works have been an adaptation of a novel (NCfOM), a remake of an older film (The Ladykillers), and a film made from a screenplay by another writing team (Intolerable Cruelty). I've always loved the Coens' skewed worldview and quirky characters, as seen in Fargo, Barton Fink, The Big Lebowski, etc, and it's more than a little disappointing to see so many critics rush to proclaim their least original work their best.
Having said that, it IS an excellent film, and I enjoyed it immensely, but I have trouble saying that it's their best. |
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