Books Into Movies

I needed a couple of engrossing, easy reads for my vacation earlier this summer, so I settled on One Day, by David Nicholls and Savages, by Don Winslow, since both are being made into movies.  One Day was released last weekend, starring Ann Hathaway and Jim Sturgess, and I can’t wait to see it, but I probably won’t like the movie as much as the book.  The main characters’ relationship spans 20 years, from a hook-up the night of their college graduation to a time when they are older and wiser and finally get together for good.  Ann Hathaway has got to be 30-ish, so playing someone between the ages of 22 and 42 isn’t that much of a stretch.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1563738/

Savages is scheduled for release in 2012 and stars Taylor Kitsch, hunky Tim Riggens from Friday Night Lights, so I definitely will not be missing that.  It’s directed by Oliver Stone and also stars John Travolta and Blake Lively, so it could be interesting.  Don Winslow writes great dialogue and his work is darkly comic and violent, so it should translate well to the screen.  Although the book was a real page-turner, and I’ve read and liked a few other books by him, I think it was a little dark for me (especially the ending, which I won’t give away).  It’s very funny with a fast moving plot and lots of gratuitous sex and violence (not that there’s anything wrong with that) but the main female character, O,  was a total bimbo and not exactly 3-dimensional.  She’s blond and beautiful, of course, and she just shops, gets high, and has sex with both of the male characters, sometimes at the same time.  She is the literary equivalent of the hooker with a heart of gold, and I expected better from Winslow.

 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1615065/