But it's nothing like the book! Why film adaptations rarely stay faithful

It's a rare thing for a film adaptation to retain the spirit of a novel - has the new film version of Jojo Moyes' bestseller Me Before You cracked it? and will it get slammed by critics anyway?

• Matilda Battersby - Independent                       
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The film industry loves to suckerfish on the back of a bestseller, feeding off the ready-made audience that comes with a successful book. A “based on the novel” movie virtually guarantees  bums on cinema seats, even if a feature-length film must abridge and alter a much-loved story.

It is rare that a film is pronounced “faithful” to the novel, however. But the whispers coming out of preview screenings of Me Before You suggest that the adaption of Jojo Moyes’ 8 million-selling novel of the same name is as near as dammit. The novel is a textbook tearjerker filled with the kind of soppy meeting of souls and lovelorn impossibility that could have been written by Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook, A Walk To Remember) but with a gratifying dose of British humour.
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