The first book-to-movie that really blew me away was The Comfort of Strangers, the 1991 Paul Schrader film based on Ian McEwan’s novel of the same name. Starring Christopher Walken and Natasha Richardson, the film perfectly captures the eerie, moody journey through Venice’s nighttime streets that made McEwan’s slim, violent, and erotically charged novella so memorable.

Last week, my husband and I rented another film based on an Ian McEwan book, the 2007 adaptation of Atonement, adapted by Christopher Hampton and directed by Joe Wright for Universal Pictures.  It’s always nice to see a studio greenlight an screen adaptation of a literary novel, something without the bells and whistles of the Harry Potter franchise or the built-in audience of a classic like The Great Gatsby. Atonement was a quiet book and an equally quiet film, starring Saorise Ronan as Briony and Keira Knightley as Cecilia. When, in a rushed moment, Briony accuses her sister Cecilia’s lover of a terrible crime that he did not commit, it sets off a series of repercussions that prove devastating for the Tallis family, as well as for the man who was wrongly accused. Enduring Love, another McEwan book-to-film (2004), is equally worth watching. The hot air balloon scene at the beginning is every bit as harrowing as the opening pages of the novel. Bottom line is, I’ll read anything Ian McEwan writes (even if, like Chesil Beach, it ultimately disappoints), and if you put it in a theater, I’ll go see it.