Great book, great movie

Rating: 9/10 (2 February 2007)

An absolutely gut-wrenching roller-coaster of a movie that among other things provides an object lesson in how to film a novel. The broad arc of the original plot is faithfully followed, tho' significant events from the book are simply ignored, and the ending bears little relation to the original. But the film is in the most important sense absolutely true to the book, whose core and most pervasive feature is the escalating sense of dread, of unpredictability, of sheer terror, of things starting to slide inexorably out of control, of madness, of limitless power at the disposal of a capricious and unhinged infant. That *feeling* - of sheer, mounting dread - is the very heart of the book, and is brilliantly transferred to the screen. Excellent, efficient, totally-focused direction; towering performances all round (every bit part was played to perfection...easy to miss given the dominance of the central performance); intelligent script, great location photography....movies don't come much better.