The No1 Ladies’ Detective Agency – a review

Posted on March 23rd, 2008 @ 23:09 in Uncategorized

Well not really a review. I started sorting through my paperwork while watching Celebrity Wife Swap with Sinitta and Bruce-something-or-other from Corrie, and then I was gonna go on sorting while watching The No1… but got too sucked into it so had to stop sorting and just keep watching.

I’ve read some of the books by Alexander McCall Smith (some of you may remember my resulting – admittedly short – Botswana craze) and was curious as to how the film would reflect them.

They say you’re usually disappointed by film versions of books you’ve read but I have to say in general I was really quite impressed with this. It captured the Botswana McCall Smith portrays very well, and I absolutely loved Jill Scott! (who plays the lead – I didn’t even know she acted!) Of course I don’t know the real Botswana apart from some online research.

What annoyed me a bit was how the film had to add some sinister “dark things go on in Africa” plot. I guess otherwise it may not have worked as well as a film but still… the books put across such a nice view of life in Botswana, why spoil it? Oh and also Grace Makutsi (the secretary) is a lot cooler / less clichéd in the books!

But all in all it was very enjoyable and largely true to the spirit of the books. It does make me wanna go to Botswana again, hehe. But instead I’ll go back to sorting through paperwork… (oh yeah and Anthony Minghella, the director, died like 5 days ago? I remember possibly reading about that but not caring cuz I’d never really paid much attention to him before… but was weird to watch a film he’d directed so very shortly after his death)

6 Comments

 
Mel said on Mar 24, 2008 at 4:50 pm

Woo! I watched that last night and enjoyed it too. I was thinking of you and your Botswana craze too. And aye, Grace was a great character. I want to play someone like that.

Jill Scott acted in the “Why Did I Get Married?” film with Janet donchaknow?!


 
 
Clarissa said on Mar 24, 2008 at 4:50 pm

Ooooooh Janet =P~


 
 
Mel said on Mar 24, 2008 at 4:56 pm

Aye!

BTW: kookyjar.com has died. It belongs to someone else now. Please change your link to http://imeldabrasil.blogspot.com and call it… MelBlog or something. KTHXBAI!


 
 
Clarissa said on Mar 24, 2008 at 5:28 pm

Ooh. How sucky. Ok will do.


 
 
Jo said on Mar 24, 2008 at 7:48 pm

Mmm, I also found Grace Mukutsi a little jagged – not that I am complaining. I’m from that part of the world and we are often so irritated by the portrayal of our lives, I guess I was monitoring myself for that reaction. I didn’t feel like that but I didn’t bond with the characters. At the end, I thought is that all? But of course, that is part of the charm of the books – the very gentleness of life there.

My sister who lived there protested that you get no feeling of how hot it is there!

I will watch it again I think and review it later.


 
 
Clarissa said on Mar 24, 2008 at 8:13 pm

Thanks for your point of view! 🙂 (and also for the link to your blog, which led me to the interesting timesonline article you posted)

According to one commenter there Grace Makutsi is “just barely someone we’d be pleased to meet” – pfft. He’s totally not understood her (a man, obviously). Mma Makutsi rocks! (geeks of the world unite!)


 

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