The Scarlet Letter

I have always been a big classic literature fan and 90% of the books I read are authored by the classics.
But I'm not always happy with the movie adaptations of those books. 
So, I decided to read a classic, then watch the movie, and share my opinion.
Mind you, there will always be SPOILERS in my posts; don't say I did not warn you.

The first 'victim' is "The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

http://www.amazon.com/Scarlet-Letter-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486280489/

First of all, I need to say that I love the story. Rediscovering the human hypocrisy and false morality is always a big pleasure ;) We, the people, and especially the women, have been subjected to those false morals throughout the centuries, and sadly, we still don't want to let them go.

With all my love for the story, I found the book so boring that I had hard time finishing it, despite that it was only 200 pages. Mr. Nathaniel Hawthorne has a writing style which I found unappealing. Sometimes I did not understand what was going on in the scene and later had to look for explanations. Maybe I need to blame the fact that English is my third language? Or maybe my poor brain is to blame?

Overall, I'm glad I read the book. I had been keeping it on my to-read list for too long.

And now, the movie!

From the first scene I doubted it was The Scarlet Letter. An Indian funeral for the opening scene? There were Indians in the book, one or two, who had almost no lines. This was the first warning that the movie might have very little to do with the story.

Indeed, it was loosely based on the book. The only similarities were the characters and the scarlet letter that Hester had to wear.

But then, we all know that the movies always differ from the books. While reading the book, I could not imagine what kind of movie would come out of it: there was too little action, and those 200 pages were nothing but symbolisms, pangs of the characters, and the ideas of the author.

Nevertheless, there was one very good thing about the movie: Gary Oldman. Yes, I am one of those who admire Mr. Oldman and consider him breathtakingly beautiful.

The movie was not bad; maybe a bit boring at times, but I watched it till the end for the sake of mesmerizing Gary.