A good year Book

Here's something you don't often hear said by readers: The movie was much better than the book.

I'm afraid in this case it's absolutely true. And the movie - which received lukewarm reviews - wasn't just more entertaining; it was more complicated, more sophisticated, and dare I say, more literary than the book.

About the only thing the screenplay kept from the book were the characters' names and the French vineyard. Sure, there were a number of other bit players who remained the same - but the main characters, and the plot itself, were altered considerably.

The book had its moments, and for the most part was the sort of light fare that works perfectly in airport terminals - where I read A Good Year - but it made no meaningful commentaries on the human condition, took no interesting chances with the language and left the characters very much the same on the last page as they were on the first.

Admittedly, the movie is heavy-handed in the transformation it subjects its protagonist to, but at least it makes an effort at character development.

Least impressive of all was the dialogue that supposedly happened in French. Turns out, the French speak their language exactly as the English speak English, and worst of all, the English speak English almost exactly the way Americans do, too.

This became clear the one time Mayle takes a chance and does some literal translation; he uses since in a way it's not exactly used in English. It marks an original moment in his dialogue which is otherwise the stuff of television sitcoms or weak movie scripts.

I'll definitely see Russell Crowe's next movie. But I'm done with Peter Mayle's novels.