In the past, crazy, week, book to movie adaptations have been a huge topic of conversation.
As many students planned ahead to see the midnight release of Harry Potter and others discussed the “interesting” take film makers had on The Namesake, the topic came up in various forms.
As people raved about Harry Potter on Friday, The Namesake left many wanting.
This made me wonder what makes a good adaptation- is it purely money? It’s safe to say Harry Potter had a slightly larger budget than The Namesake, but I truly think money can only do so much.
Acting, also, plays a key part in the successfulness of a film, but I think another factor has a much more important role.
I think the main factor of how well the movie comes across is how successfully the deep meaning of the book is captured.
In Harry Potter, they remained extremely faithful to the original novel, while The Namesake film’s meaning is being overshadowed by a lack of focus on the main message, with much more emphasis put on Gogol’s drug habits and Moushumi’s mustache.
While I’ll have to see the rest of the film to be certain, I’m willing to bet that I enjoy Harry Potter over The Namesake, not only based on my preexisting bias, but on how the movie adaptors brought across the major meaning.
Brooke, I agree with you on that book to movie needs to have that deep meaning factor. I went and saw Harry Potter, which I usually feel fall way short of the book, and thought that the book to movie adaptation was the best yet. I really got the idea of Harry's desperation and determination as he searches for a way to destroy Voldemort. However, in The Namesake I didn't really get that feeling. I agree that Gogol seems more like a drug addict than a troubled Indian struggling with his name. Likewise in Gogol's family I do not feel the disconnect between Ashima and Ashoke that I had expected from the novel. From the book I expected them to be much more awkward, but in the movie they were all touchy and chatting in Bengali. They even use their real names to call each other, which I thought was totally sacred.
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