The Luminaries
Now I do understand that changes are necessary for an adaptation to be successful. But that comes with the caveat that you have to maintain the spirit of the book. Just look to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and it's adaptation! A perfect pair without being carbon copies. The reason I mention Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell is because that is a book I am fanatically devoted to, much as I am to Eleanor Catton's The Luminaries. Seeing as I just fell in love with this book last year I didn't know that it's one of those books that was viewed as unadaptable, and this adaptation kind of proves the point. The nonlinear narrative and large cast of characters were viewed as the primary stumbling blocks. So this adaptation decided to hone in on five characters to the detriment of all others. This also brought the two female leads into a more prominent role, which, given that it aired on Starz, is kind of their M.O., but it just didn't work. They need to be mysterious, but as you'll see below, they apparently don't like mysteries. In fact, aside from the casting, nothing about this adaptation worked. I want to do my own Snyder Cut on this because it could work, if it was entirely reconceptualized. The book works because it's a mystery you're working to solve along with the characters. Here there was literally no mystery. Unless you count the missing heart of the book in this adaptation as a mystery. Gone was the nonlinear narrative and instead everything was told step by step from beginning to end with a few glimpses into the future. We know from day one that Anna and Emery are "astral twins" and the mystery of their connection is just swept aside as a given instead of a riddle to be solved. Instead of trying to find out the mystery of the gold found in Crosbie Wells's cottage we just follow the gold around New Zealand as it changes hands. Boring. Also, the machinations of Francis Carver are laid out so simply and so plainly that you don't see the evil and the Machiavellian scheming playing out. You don't see him as the center of a vast conspiracy that unfolds over time. I just am baffled by this adaptation in that they had the building blocks and they made this!?! Why!?! Perhaps we'll never know, much like what kind of accent Eva Green was trying to accomplish.
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