After reading The Quiet American by Graham Greene we decided to watch the 2002 movie based upon the book. Now, first of all, I love Michael Caine who plays Thomas Fowler and, second of all, I'm not a huuuuge fan of Brendan Frasier who plays Alden Pyle (for those of you who are lost refer to our reviews of The Quiet American below). Does this really pose a problem though? I liked the character of Fowler in the book and disliked Pyle so it should actually be beneficial that I felt the same about the actors playing them. Michael Caine rocked it (although I personally think he should have smoked more opium) and Brendan Frasier actually did a decent job, even though he didn't get across the naivety perfectly.
Overall, we felt that this was a decent adaptation of the book. It changed details here and there, like all adaptations must do, but with a few exceptions they were not harmful to the overall feel of the original content. One thing we did have a problem with was in the movie Fowler does not speak French. This cut down on the awkwardness of some key scenes. The combination of two characters from the book into one in the movie was also unsettling (for reasons I can't divulge, you'll just have to read the book to find out why...).
One way in which the movie actually improved upon the book was in the character of Phuong. She actually seemed to have a say in what happened to her in the movie, even if Pyle did try to turn her into an America. Some sort of affect of modern girl power? Maybe. It also had amazing scenery. Kinda makes you want to go to war torn Vietnam. Almost.
Finially, I would like to leave you with one of my favorite Michael Caine quotes:
"There's only two things I hate in this world. People who are intolerant of other people's cultures, and the Dutch."
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