The Handmaid's Tale

Though not a very skilled adaptation of Margaret Atwood's masterwork, this film is oddly memorable. It sticks in your head; it is not the main cast, though Faye Dunaway is impeccable; I think, rather, there are moments where the imagery of the novel is finely rendered [such as the scene where the Handmaids attack one of their own in front of a row of hanged criminals], and these stick in the memory as all great dystopia should.

Despite being pretty faithful to the novel's plot, it's remarkably unfaithful to its tone, largely because it loses the novel's inner monologue. That inner voice is needed because this is a story focused entirely on a woman unable to express her feelings outwardly. Also needs more attention to detail and world-building, more seaminess, more menace, more uncertainty, more hypocrisy, more outrage (all of which are promised in the opening sequence). A film as flaccid as the Commander himself.

Found this to be an interesting story, but it felt one dimensional, like I was missing part of the story.

3/17/19 - Basically a rearranged version of the book. Not a lot of insight into the world of the Handmaids though. I liked how this movie had more of an ending than the book did, though.