Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger
Though they don't sugarcoat the
physical injuries and broken dreams so achingly detailed by Bissinger's
1990 book on Texas high school football, screen-writers David Aaron
Cohen and Peter Berg favor the amped-up games and fictionalized
reconciliations (alcoholic dad gives son his own state champ ring) of
the Permian Panthers' '88 season over the harsher anecdotes of poverty
and racism.
The Last Word
Bissinger's account packs a stronger emotional wallop than director(and Bissinger cousin) Berg's action-centric film.
The Motorcycle Diaries, Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara and Traveling With Che Guevara, Alberto Granado
By dove-tailing the travelogues of
Che (Gael García Bernal) and his biochemist pal, screenwriter Jose
Rivera weaves a cohesive account of the duo's 1952 South American tour.
Though mostly faithful, he omits maritime detours and embellishes minor
plot points (an endurance swim becomes a symbol for bridging social
inequality).
The Last Word
The gorgeous film better evokes the pre-revolutionary trip than their
own scattered recollections.
Theatre, W. Somerset Maugham
Adapting Maugham's rich novella about
1930s London theater in Being Julia, screenwriter Ronald Harwood rushes
through the plot and irritatingly condenses intricately layered
anecdotes in his hurry to show scorned diva Julia Lambert (Annette
Bening) triumph in her final scene. Most annoying revamp: Making Julia's
acting coach Jimmie Langton (Michael Gambon) into a hovering,
beyond-the-grave observer.
The Last Word
The catty (and class-conscious) English stage world is better explained
by playwright Maugham.
P.S., Helen Schulman
Since the author cowrote the script,
it's no surprise that director-screen-writer Dylan Kidd produces a
strictly interpreted adaptation of Schulman's wacky 2001 reincarnation
fable about a Columbia University admissions officer (Laura Linney) and
her younger, is-he-her-dead-boyfriend's-doppel-gânger student lover
(Topher Grace).
The Last Word
Dear Reader, while the reliable Linney believably overcomes her high
school hang-ups, Kidd's film can't match the smart, lusty vibe of
Schulman's original novel.
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