Tags
A Conspiracy of Faith, Adler-Olsen, Bad, Carl Morck, Cold cases, Department Q, Disappointment, Fares Fares, Fasanjägarna, Film, Flaskpost från P, Great author, Great stories, Jussi, Jussi Adler-Olsen, Kvinnan i rummet, Marcoeffekten, Movie, Movie characters, Movies, The Absent One, The Keeper of Lost Causes, The Marco Effect
I have read four of Jussi Adler-Olsens books about Department Q solving cold cases and I am in the middle of number five, The Marco Effect. In parallel me and my husband have, these last few days, watched the movies of the first three books and Oh My God!!! This is the perfect example of how to make a great book into just another crime movie. The movies are not bad, no, not at all, but they are completely missing out on what is so special about Jussis books.
The thing with his books, apart from them being really, really great and exciting stories, is the super special characters in the books. They are all so unique and that is completely lost in the movies. Also there is such a lot of humor in the dialogs and Jussi seems to have a never ending stream of hilarious parallels to present. I laugh out loud when reading them. So great! Nothing of this is showing in the movies, the characters are just plain ordinary. So sad! And where is Hardy? He is not even in movie 2 and 3? And Rose is like an ordinary woman working at the police station? So not her! And Assads mysterious background? Not a word about that! They even move a lot of the plot to the upper floor in the police station. This is also not according to the books and destroys the special department Q feeling that Jussi has been building up, book by book. What they should show is that small, very odd team, working together in the basement of the building, struggling against the rest of the station.
I put no blame on the actors, they are doing a fantastic job, especially Fares Fares who actually learnt to speak Danish just for these movies. And it sounds really good in my “hardly possible to even hear what they say even though it is a Nordic language” ears. 🙂 But the producers of the movies have destroyed what was a great opportunity to make fantastic movies but instead they chose to change so much that the complete core of Jussis books totally vanished.
I have heard Jussi talking about these movies, at Crime Time Gotland, and express his disappointment about this movie deal and I can do nothing but agree.
I really hope someone, some day, will produce the REAL Department Q movies, so we all can enjoy the true stories, with the great characters and, what’s most important, get that very special and humorous Jussi Adler-Olsens feeling.