From Book To Film: Les Miserables - Does The Film Live Up To The Musical?

By Kaki Olsen /

Welcome, movie fans! Given the number of articles I see in the Film section, this site is a haven for you. It is for me as well. I spend too much time and money at the movies and that's even including trips to the dollar theater in my city. I have lists of movies that I want to see throughout the year and, being the book nerd that I am, a lot of them are ones that I look forward to with a very critical eye. Coming up this year are some movies that I think will be done really well in book-to-blockbuster adaptation. But while we're looking forward to Ender's Game, Catching Fire, etc., I thought we'd start a new From Book To Film column with a big favourite from the turn of the year. Introduction To This Idea The premise of what I hope will be a series is simple: We'll be looking at movies that have been made from books. We'll mention some things that the movie added to it with success and without success. We'll give you some spoilers on what you might not have caught because you haven't read the book. We'll leave it up to you whether you should watch it or not. Essentially, this is the Cliff Notes for book adaptations so you can stop being hounded by your literarily-snobby friends who are quasi-hipsters and claim that you're too mainstream if you've only seen the movie. I hope some of you will want to go from here to your local bookstore and/or Kindle Store or whatever you use so you can try it for yourself. So, our agenda is to talk first about the play, then the movie and round it off with some good reasons why you should go out and find yourself a copy of this book.