State of Play: See both of them

I barely noticed when State of Play (IMDB | Amazon) was released in theaters. A couple of weeks ago I tried out Amazon's Video on Demand for the first time and that was the movie I picked. I am picky, picky, picky when it comes to mystery/suspense movies and generally go in expecting to be dissatisfied, but this movie rocked. Like any movie, I can pick some holes in it, but the combination of action, mystery and suspense kept me enthralled (it gets a 7.4 at IMDB, which is an excellent rating). And though not a huge Crowe fan, I thought he was awesome here. I think it fortuitous that Brad Pitt backed out...I just can't see him in the role.

Reading up on the movie I discovered it was based on a BBC series by the same name (IMDB | Amazon). The BBC has a reputation for good mystery series (I'm a fan of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries), and their original version gets a 8.7 at IMDB. The six hour span obviously allows for more character development and prolonged suspense.

I think comparing the two, or more to the point, expecting the same things, is like comparing novels to screenplays--it's a lost cause. What is so cool here is that both are wonderful mysteries and the writing is good to great. Given a choice I would suggest you watch the U.S. release first, as I did, because the BBC version expands on it and slows it down.

I now own, and recommend, them both. Oh, and about being a picky mystery viewer, the truth might be that good mystery movies are a rare thing. Of the IMDB Top 50 Mystery Movies:

Only 11 were made in this century (only 1 in the top 10, 3 in the top 20), and 31 came before 1990. Fortunately, great mystery novels are not quite so rare (emphasis on not quite).

Writer Series: Openings #3

Here's the intro to John Fowles', The Collector (Back Bay Books),called the first psychological thriller by many. If you read thrillers this kind of prose will seem familiar--but keep in mind Fowles wrote it in 1963. The tone could be a lover reminiscing about the woman he would eventually meet and marry, but the chilling undertone tells us that is not the case.

"When she was home from her boarding-school I used to see her almost every day sometimes, because their house was right opposite the Town Hall Annexe. She and her younger sister used to go in and out a lot, often with young men, which of course I didn’t like. When I had a free moment from the files and ledgers I stood by the window and used to look down over the road over the frosting and sometimes I’d see her. In the evening I marked it in my observations diary, at first with X, and then when I knew her name with M. I saw her several times outside too. I stood right behind her once in a queue at the public library down Crossfield Street. She didn’t look once at me, but I watched the back of her head and her hair in a long pigtail. It was very pale, silky, like Burnet cocoons. All in one pigtail coming down almost to her waist, sometimes in front, sometimes at the back. Sometimes she wore it up. Only once, before she came to be my guest here, did I have the privilege to see her with it loose, and it took my breath away it was so beautiful, like a mermaid."