American Assassin (2017)
From 1999 to his death in 2013, Vince Flynn wrote 13 books in the Mitch Rapp series (Kyle Mills has since continued the series after Flynn’s passing). Despite it being the eleventh entry, American Assassin is actually the origin story of how Rapp became a CIA black-ops recruit. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from a political thriller: action, deceit, and a whole lot of macho toughness.
2017’s American Assassin, directed by Michael Cuesta and starring Dylan O’Brien and Michael Keaton, is all those things in a nutshell, too. Ignoring the mixed reception (obviously the critics were expecting Schindler’s List here), it’s a faithful adaptation of the source material that knows exactly what it is. Seriously, it’s an action film – were you expecting an Oscar-winning screenplay and something that addressed the plights of Sri Lankan widows?
At the end of the day, the book was a lot of fun, as was the movie. If you’re a fan of Flynn’s work, you’d be certainly satisfied with this big-screen adaptation of it.
Gone Girl (2014)
Reading Gillian Flynn’s psychological thriller Gone Girl, it’s hard not to imagine it as a David Fincher movie in the first place. It’s an uneasy, complex, and mind-boggling tale. Also, the unreliable narrator makes for an excellent twist and red herring for all those who thought they knew what was going on. Honestly, raise your hand if you thought Nick Dunne actually killed his wife.
Fincher captured all of this and then some with his 2014 film. The castings were superb, the color scale toyed with our emotions, and the narrative didn’t deviate too far from the novel’s premise. If anything, this is a case where the film might actually be better than the source material.
With all the awards, nominations, and critical praise for Gone Girl, it’s possibly one of the best book-to-screen adaptations of all time. It’s not an easy watch or read by any means, but it’s one heck of a story in either medium.