Thursday Movie Picks: Movies Adapted From Plays


Another Thursday calls for a new entry to Wandering Through The Shelves' Movie Meme! There's still a couple of weeks left, so if you haven't joined in, go visit her site! This week's theme is movies adapted from plays. The week's theme limitation is that it can't be Shakespearean (or we'll be seeing a lot of Hamlets and Macbeths on the list) or based from a musical. Here are my choices for this week:


Adapted from: Closer by Patrick Marbel. Closer tells the story of four lovers whose lives are intertwined through their relations with one another as they explore the bliss and pain involved in the world of love. While Julia Roberts and Jude Law stand as the lead characters, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman's performances were the ones that stood out. I love how the film was written; I don't think I've ever heard of love being poignantly written as this. The film itself is aesthetically pleasing; there were many shots that depict so much thought and agony from the characters. 

Adapted from: Peter & Wendy/Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by J.M. Barrie. My favorite movie relating to Peter Pan is Finding Neverland, one of Johnny Depp's better films in between Pirates movies. Both 1953 and 2003 Peter Pan movies were based on the play, but I went with the 1953 version as I found it superior to the latter (though in any medium, I've always found Wendy to be annoying). The character that becomes iconic here is not Peter Pan, but rather Tinkerbell, but Peter Pan shows us a glimpse of what we could become if we choose not to move past our childish encounters. 

Adapted from: Everybody Comes to Rick's by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison. This is technically a cheat since the stage play was not produced. Casablanca was one of my blind spot picks this year, and I fell in love with it. The dialogue was amazing, and the chemistry between Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman was wonderful. Along with Paul Henreid, it was impossible not to be taken away by any of them - their performances were amazing. 

10 comments:

  1. Excellent picks, sir! I had no clue that Closer was based on a play. It's the only one of these I haven't seen, so I need to get on it. Love the other two picks.

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    1. Thank you! I haven't seen love described so eloquently as how it was written in Closer.

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  2. I've seen Closer but I still had no idea that it was based on a play; I can't even picture it in a stage.
    Well, great list anyway! For other movie based on play, I'll pick August: Osage County, too

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    1. I haven't seen August: Osage County, but I'll try to see it soon!

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  3. Great picks! Curious though, wasn't Peter Pan originally a novel...and then a play? I guess it would still count.

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  4. I never realized Closer was a play! Learned something today.

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    1. I wonder how it'll look onstage - if it was a beautiful film, it must have been a great production!

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  5. Yes Closer had such great shots..most with Natalie Portman (one when she turned for Julia Roberts character to take a picture and the other with that pink hair as Clive Owen character came into the strip joint.)
    Wandering through the Shelves

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    1. The Natalie Portman-Julia Roberts scene is currently my blog header! And her scene with Clive Owen was also well-shot.

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