Nick Hornby is up there with Nicholas Sparks and Michael Crichton in terms of authors who’ve had almost all their books turned into movies. Hell, they did Fever Pitch twice. Some of the adaptations were okay, but even the better ones were screwed up in some basic way – like setting High Fidelity in the US (that scene where Stiff Little Fingers supposedly sounds like Green Day still pisses me off) and updating the setting of About a Boy from mid-90s period piece to the present (even though the damn title was a Nirvana reference). Now, director Pascal Chaumeil and writer Jack Thorne take the latest crack at Hornby, in A Long Way Down.
Pierce Brosnan, Aaron Paul, Toni Collette, and Imogen Poots star as a group of depressed mopeingtons who find themselves trying to jump off the same building on New Year’s Eve. They make a pact not to kill themselves until Valentine’s Day, and form an unlikely gang of friends. It was feeling alone that brought them together and stuff! A Long Way Down wasn’t my favorite Hornby book, because it kind of felt like the book version of a cutesy dramedy, and it sort of looks like they’re turning it into a cutesy dramedy, which would make a lot of sense. But if you’re going watch a sappy movie, you could do worse than one about Pierce Brosnan and Aaron Paul becoming unlikely best friends. It’s just a shame Paul’s character is American. I’d kill to see him do a whole movie with a British accent. Cheerio, bitch.
Is it possible to pull off the grungy punk look without fingerless gloves? I say no.
[Premieres at the Berlin Film Festival – where I’ll be, to tell you all about it – with a March 1st release in the UK. No US release date set. Via RopeofSilicon]
