Dan Liebke's Astonishing Tales

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The other night I eventually summoned the courage to watch the movie version of The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. I’d avoided it until now, as I was afraid that the film translation would fail to accurately capture the essence of the book and/or radio show and/or towel. How wrong I was. Watching the movie, I saw with delight that the director, Garth Jennings, most renowned for the intricately plotted The Best of R.E.M. (1988-2003), had perfectly captured Douglas Adams’ love of zany slapstick, bad puppetry and broad, scenery-chewing performances. He also managed to cleverly discard the wit and wordplay that Adams was so ashamed of in his writing, by the simple technique of having the actors say their lines asquicklyaspossible.

But, of course, I’m being facetious. For I am a lovable wag. Still, perhaps I shouldn’t be too harsh. Perhaps there are simply some tales that can’t be told satisfactorily in cinematic form – tales such as Hitch-Hiker’s Guide or David Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest or, indeed, anything starring Daryl Hannah.

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