Book Challenge Day 4: Movies from Books

The prompt for this posting was "A book turned into a movie and completely desecrated."  I'll be honest and say that I'm having a really difficult time thinking of any books turned movies that I really loved or really hated.  They generally don't have that much of an effect on me.  Certainly there have been a great many movies made from books that do not in any way do justice to the plot.  There are many movies I've seen that are great in their own right, even though they really departed from the book (To Kill a Mockingbird and The Book Thief come to mind).  I guess the only truly abysmal book-turned-movie that  I can think of would have to be The Da Vinci Code.

So, yes, I am outing myself that I have read and enjoyed Dan Brown novels.  In fact, when my hubby and I visited Italy, we took the Angels and Demons tour in Rome.  (An entertaining and informative tour, FYI!)  I know that Brown is a bit of a pattern writer, and not to be taken seriously, but I really like his novels.  They're like the cotton candy of adult fiction.

Robert Langdon is such a dashing character in the novels.  I am sorry to say that Tom Hanks is not a dashing actor.  It's not that the films are bad; it's that the casting is deeply, irrevocably flawed.  I had a very definite picture in my head that Viggo Mortensen (*sigh*) was THE ONLY ACTOR who could play Robert Langdon.  I mean, look at this man.

I feel that if they had cast him in the movie, maybe it would have been salvageable (I have since decided that Michael Fassbender would also be acceptable in the role).  I don't know.  I guess the biggest problem with the movie was that when it wasn't happening inside my head it just seemed so implausible.  Maybe that's why I didn't think Da Vinci Code or Angels and Demons translated very well into film.  Perhaps it's necessary to imagine all of these locations as completely empty and devoid of tourists chattering and snapping pictures to get the full effect.  And don't even get me started on Paul Bettany as an albino monk.  

Big fat fail.  Silas was scary in the book, and huge.  Bettany is neither scary, nor huge.  It was just wrong.  Audrey Tautou's hair was way too suburban soccer mom, and she looked nothing like the character description for Sophie.  It's like they never even read the book before they cast the darned thing.  Ugh.  I hate to end on a negative note.  So here's Michael Fassbender looking all intellectual and like a dashing professor/ archaeologist/ historian/ code breaker.  You're welcome.