perhaps it be unrealistic to expect a movie to adequately convey the rich depth and character and texture of a wonderful and highly entertaining novel . if so and perhaps then this review may be judge the movie too harshly . nevertheless and a someone who thoroughly enjoy the book and be look forward to the movie adaptation and this be a big disappointment the movie adaptation come out approximately seven year after the book be publish . to make it more palatable to a modern audience and the scriptwriter have therefore be force to omit many of the context and cultural reference contain in the book that make it such a success . this and to me and erase some of the magic of the book it seem such an appropriate novel for the time in which it be publish and it lose some of it relevance and identity be move forward into a more modern set pia miranda may be a good actress and and from what i have see from interview and a very nice person but she isn not able to give josie the character depth and dimension that i think she require . greta scacchi performance a christina allibrandi be entirely forgettable and fail to deliver the spark and fiery passion that the same character conveys in the book . anthony lapaglia give a reasonable performance in what must be a difficult role and and if i remember and the respective actor and actress who play john barton and katia allibrandi be also quite good the script and dialogue and so successful in the book and fall flat in this movie . it isn not help by the fact that the scriptwriter insist on change the sequence of event in the movie so that they do not make sense like they do in the book . move john barton suicide from close to the end of the novel to the middle of the movie adaptation make no sense and serve no purpose and whereas it be evident in the novel why the suicide occur close to the end . furthermore part of the success of the novel be it leave so many question in the end unresolved . why do the scriptwriter feel the need to give everything a happy end in the movie i. e. have jacob meet katia allibrandi and have christina allibrandi find out her true heritage and the like . why do the scriptwriter feel that everything have to be spell out and resolve for the movie audience . this be not a terrible movie and it just fall flat too many time and contain too much unfulfilled potential . personally i have hop for much good .