c594421 Having read, and thoroughly enjoyed the book, I must say that except for a few phrases and scenes borrowed from the book, the plot did not resemble that of the book. I gave it five stars for effort and atmosphere.

clanciai This is one of those great novels that cannot be corrupted by the screening of it, no matter how much you alter in the book to fit it into a picture, as the plot itself, the skeleton of the story, is unavoidable and carries it all no matter what you cut out of the flesh or add to it. Tara Fitzgerald and Andrew Lincoln as the main characters are convincing enough, although different from the book, while Simon Callow as Count Fosco, although his appearance is brief in comparison with the book, gets the place in the sun as the central hub of intrigue, one of the most classical and irresistible villains in literature.But the main asset of this TV film version is the quiet mood and the excellent composition of the pictures - many scenes are just like Victorian paintings, and a painting actually is made to play almost like a red thread through the film.The finale, although completely different from the book, makes the film dramatic enough though, and the only thing you really lack in this film version is the high intensity of the book building up a tension that makes the finale triumphant in its karmic justice.They say the 1982 version is better. It is to be noted that Ian Richardson plays in both versions. It will be interesting to find it somewhere.

paultait36 I watched this a few years ago and then again today. I had forgotten quite how badly it butchers Collins' story. Some of the omissions (e.g. some important characters simply fail to appear) might be justified on length grounds but some of the changes seem entirely pointless - why do Laura and Marian (Collins' spelling, by the way) share their father instead of their mother? Why does Walter meet the Woman in White near Limmeridge instead of near London? And many, many more. The reason I watched it today was to compare it with the 1982 TV serialisation which I have just acquired on DVD and which is virtually 100% faithful to the book and much more worth watching. The only enjoyable feature of the 1997 version was seeing Ian Richardsom reprise his role as Mr Fairlie.

harrsman5 After reading the decent and captivating Wilkie Collins novel, The Woman in White, I wondered how badly Hollywood could screw this up. Well, never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined a more horrible movie. The people who wrote the script clearly did not read the book, as they took a bunch of the major events, and instead of developing them, they Hollywoodized them. How else can you explain Anne Catherick throwing herself off a tower instead of allowing Percival and Fosco to enact their famous plot. And after the movie builds up Percival's secret, presumably leading to a shocking climax, they merely gloss over the secret and create a worthless final battle between Marian and Percival, which is comical at best. I have seen lots of bad films in my life, but never have I seen a film try so hard to be good, yet fall so incredibly on its face. This movie has no redeeming qualities!