We’ve all been there: realising that our favourite book is being turned into a series or film for the big screen and thinking, ‘I really hope they’ve adapted this well’.
Usually, it’s not the case.
Just ask viewers of book-to-screen adaptations like My Sister’s Keeper.
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It’s not often that writers are able to convince directors to stay true to their works, but one man was able to do it - and it paid off greatly.
In fact, Harlan Coben is known for his ability to completely ensure that his works are kept to the book when production teams pick it up.
One of his most famous works, 2001’s Tell No One, is an amazingly tense story about a man’s pain, past, and how it all caught up to him.
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Picked up by Trésor Films and EuropaCorp, it was released in 2006 as a heart-racing picture for fans to lose their minds over.
This French feature racked up an amazing 93 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes by critic’s polled and 87 per cent by audiences around the world, due to its tense scenes and multiple twists.
Now, this is no small feat as we know how cut-throat critics and the public can be, especially when it comes to book adaptations.
However, knowing that Coben, the author of the original book was on hand as one of the film’s writers, there was no way it was going to stray from the core themes.
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It also stars fantastic French actors (François Cluzet, Marie-Josée Croze, André Dussollier) who were able to get into the nitty gritty storyline and portray real emotions of a tragic investigation.
IMDB summarises the mystery plot as: “An accidental discovery near a doctor's estate stirs up some painful memories eight years after his wife's hideous murder, and now, things are bound to take a turn for the unexpected. Does the good doctor know more than he's letting on?”
Known for his thriller-investigation books, you’ll know his work as TV shows and films such as Netflix’s Safe, The Stranger, Stay Close, The Innocent, Hold Tight, Gone for Good, and The Woods.
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His latest is Fool Me Once, which stars Michelle Keegan as a wife searching for the truth about her husband’s and sister’s deaths surrounded by a rich and powerful family.
But it’s Tell No One that holds the top-prize of having almost every single viewer in awe.
A top critic was wowed by the film’s close resemblance to Alfred Hitchcock’s style of direction writing: “The most Hitchcockian film that Hitchcock never made, this ingenious French thriller takes Hitch’s concept of 'the wrong man' to labyrinthine places.”
Another was impressed by the camera technology and the use of thriller-esque camerawork: “Canet has covered his bases with enough swooping camerawork, narrative smoke-and-mirrors, and quick-sketched supporting characters for a dozen thrillers.”
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Someone else penned: “Tell No One is not only one of the most satisfying book adaptations, but also one of the most fun, perfectly-paced genre films I've seen in years.”
Have you watched this flick?
Topics: Books, Netflix, Reviews, TV and Film
Britt Jones