After the initial nostalgia of watching a VHS for the first time in years, having found this video amongst my parents collection of videos, there is nothing much else to say in the way of enjoying oneself watching this film.<br /><br />Of course this has nothing to do with the actual film which, no doubt, most people will be watching on DVD anyway. I should first point out that this is a review from a person who prior to seeing the film read the book; an excellent and gripping thriller.<br /><br />So, without going into particulars, the screenplay is atrocious. It comes across to me as though it has been written by someone who loved the book and wished to put as many small references to the book into the film as possible. There are many of these which only someone who has read the book will even notice. There are others that non-readers will also notice because they make so little sense to the story of the film and this is where the problem lies; in trying to make a faithful adaptation of the small details the screenwriter has forgotten to put any plot in. Towards the end of the film then, the screenwriter obviously decided that the script was missing something and so decided to change then entire end of the story. Worst of all is the pandering to either the female audience or the stardom of Kate Winslet, giving Hester Wallace a much larger part in the story than she originally had. I have nothing against this in principal but its simply not what Robert Harris wrote and a simply unnecessary change to the plot.<br /><br />This brings me onto casting and then the acting of the people who were cast. Dougray Scott was possibly the worst idea of them all. He doesn't fit the description of Tom Jerico in the slightest and his acting, not to mention his accent, are horrible. Hester in the book is small and skinny: "I know! Lets cast someone who's pregnant!". Her acting is unremarkable and her persona changed somewhat too much. The rest of the cast is adequate. Kind of...<br /><br />Why 3 stars and not 1 then? Well I don't want to be too harsh and you have to give credit to the crew, considering how incompetent they were, or at least remembering to turn the cameras on.