Everyone always says the book was better than the movie. Can anyone write a HUB on any time the movie was actually...

It can be difficult for a person who loves a book to love a movie made from it, because by the nature of film as a medium there are going to be certain things that have to be taken out or treated differently. There are, however, many films that capture the essence of their source text beautifully and even a handful that exceed the quality of the book. Here are a couple of examples:

Girl With a Pearl EarringTracy Chevalier's novel about the servant girl who inspires Johannes Vermeer's famous painting is a perfectly serviceable book, but a little bit lightweight. Peter Webber's film adaptation, however, is anything but. The acting (by Scarlett Johansson, Colin Firth, Tom Wilkinson and Cillian Murphy, among others) is superb and understated, and rather than capitalizing on the appeal of its attractive stars by adding love scenes, the underlying lust and yearning is communicated through the slightest touches and longing glances. There isn't much by way of dialogue, but the film isn't boring. Furthermore, the cinematography is spectacular. Nearly every shot of the movie is as beautiful as the paintings of Vermeer themselves, and the film really capitalizes on the theme of art and beauty in wonderfully nuanced ways.

Bride and Prejudice/Clueless

Bride and Prejudice and Clueless are my two favorite adaptations of Jane Austen. On the surface they don't seem to be very faithful to the text, as both are modern day adaptations set in different cultures, but they retain the spirit and humor that filmmakers like Joe Wright fail to recognize in Austen's novels. Bride and Prejudice translates the oft-told story of Pride and Prejudice into a love story between a beautiful daughter of an Indian farmer and a rich American lawyer. The culture clash is an inspired analogue for the clash between social classes in the novel. The movie is packed with heart and passion and it is witty and entertaining rather than stuffy and staid, like many period films.

Clueless is similarly spirited. Cher Horowitz is exactly who Emma Woodhouse would be, were she alive in Beverly Hills in the 1990s rather than England in the early 19th century. The themes of matchmaking, gossip, social class differences and coming of age are handled beautifully. What filmmakers can learn from these two films is that sometimes it's better to dispense faithfulness to the exact plotline and dialogue of a novel in favor of retaining its spirit.