Decent adaptation, but lacking in character personalities
This very first adaptation of one of Sjöwall/Wahlöö's books about the policeman Beck and his colleagues, is a perfectly decent adaptation. Fans of the book will find all major plot lines present and not altered too much.
It does however lack in details. In the film, even the main detective, Beck, feels like a cardboard character without any personality or defining features other than being "the police", and his whole cast of colleagues are just background people there to fill out the sets, several are not even mentioned by name and we learn nothing about them. Even though the book is quite short, we get quite a few personal details and several police men involved in the case, have analytic discussion and some having different jobbs based on their skills, which all makes the characters feel real and the world lived in. There are also some details changed or omitted, some of which are still relevant and you have to infer from what happens on screen to figure it out. It's not a show don't tell scenario, it's a don't tell and hope they still figure it out scenario.
The film suffers even from from omitting these details because the story it self is not very interesting, at least not in my opinion, neither did I think the books story very strong. What made the book still a fun read what that we got a close personal look into the lives of there fictive police men at work, seeing how they reason and work toward the next clue and how they all work together, how some of them have great respect for one another and how some hate each other but still maintain a professional relationship. With all of this gone, the worst part of the book, the actual story, gets a full 100 minutes to prove just how poorly it works on its own.
Still it's not a bad movie if you like detective film and I would encourage fans of the series to watch this very frist adaptation of the book. It's an interesting piece if nothing else, and by no means a slog to get through.
It does however lack in details. In the film, even the main detective, Beck, feels like a cardboard character without any personality or defining features other than being "the police", and his whole cast of colleagues are just background people there to fill out the sets, several are not even mentioned by name and we learn nothing about them. Even though the book is quite short, we get quite a few personal details and several police men involved in the case, have analytic discussion and some having different jobbs based on their skills, which all makes the characters feel real and the world lived in. There are also some details changed or omitted, some of which are still relevant and you have to infer from what happens on screen to figure it out. It's not a show don't tell scenario, it's a don't tell and hope they still figure it out scenario.
The film suffers even from from omitting these details because the story it self is not very interesting, at least not in my opinion, neither did I think the books story very strong. What made the book still a fun read what that we got a close personal look into the lives of there fictive police men at work, seeing how they reason and work toward the next clue and how they all work together, how some of them have great respect for one another and how some hate each other but still maintain a professional relationship. With all of this gone, the worst part of the book, the actual story, gets a full 100 minutes to prove just how poorly it works on its own.
Still it's not a bad movie if you like detective film and I would encourage fans of the series to watch this very frist adaptation of the book. It's an interesting piece if nothing else, and by no means a slog to get through.
- felix-bergman
- 24 may 2024