MovieChat Forums > The Night Manager (2016) Discussion > Are All Le Carre Adaptions This Bad?

Are All Le Carre Adaptions This Bad?


Or was it just the terrible casting (except Laurie) and writing for this particular one?

Pine was obviously written to a narrow female audience: weak, effeminate pretty boy. Falls for an older woman. Cries like a baby but was supposedly a 2 tour combat soldier.

Sounds a lot like woman porn to me...

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Have you watched Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy and the sequel Smiley's People?? These are probably the best of John le Carre's stories with Alec Gunness playing Smiley.

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Didn't realize TTSS was based on Le Carre. It was great.

Guess that means "The Night Manager" was intentionally developed as woman porn.

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I did not like TTSS. I had to rent it later and turn on subtitles I literally could not understand the English accents.

One thing Le Carre does which is so distracting, is jump around from years previous, to months previous, and then into the present with hardly you knowing what in the world he is doing.

I am reading the book for the second time, because some things have been changed for the movie.
I don't find Le Carre to be that great a writer. he is way too wordy. It just bogs down the narrative.

but when adapted to screen play they get rid of all the verbiage and nonsense and give you a good story.

His books seem very cynical.

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"I don't find Le Carre to be that great a writer. he is way too wordy."

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John le Carre writes in excellent English. The structure of his sentences and paragraphs are a lesson to us all. The standard of English in the postings here leaves much to be desired. All Posters take note...

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The current state of the English language in general is in a tattered, pathetic state.

t used to be that people aspired to be educated and speak like the "upper class".

Now it's the opposite. The majority wants to look, act and sound like they just walked out of the ghetto.

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I guess I belong to a much earlier generation. I was fortunate at school to have an inspirational teacher in the English Department. Old standards die hard, but I query the accuracy of your statement that the language is in tatters. (which is a very polite way of saying, you are talking bu****it.)!!!

P.S. Ah jings, yon wee rochambeau-934-616003 is a fair scunner, an' he dusna come frae Glesga either...

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John le Carre writes in excellent English. The structure of his sentences and paragraphs are a lesson to us all. The standard of English in the postings here leaves much to be desired. All Posters take note...


I would agree with that. He writes extremely well; it is always the impression that I come away with whenever I finish a Le Carre novel.

As for the Le Carre adaptations, I can only speak of a few, but those had been well done. The ones that I am thinking of is "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011) and "A Most Wanted Man" (2014, one of the last films with Philip Seymour Hoffman)

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I liked Smiley's People etc. plus "The Spy Who came in from the Cold" with Richard Burton. Another Le Carre adaption.



I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else

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I've heard that the novel THE SPY WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD has a much tighter plot than his later books and is far less verbose.

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I found this show to be slower than molasses and I was actually rooting for Richard Roper. I only watched it because Tobias Menzies is in the show.

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I only gave it a chance because of Laurie.

Had no idea who Hiddleston was before this but he's definitely on my "wimpy boy" don;t bother list for the future.

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After two episodes, I like it so far.

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Are you a middle aged woman by chance?

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I did not think much of Smiley's People.

It's that man again!!

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Laurie is the only decent actor in this mess, and he's why I'm watching. When he's not on camera the whole thing just s l o w s to a crawl.....





Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar, and / or doesn't.

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Spoilers…..











I'm only watching it for Laurie too. And I'm scratching my head at the sheer stupidity of some of the characters. The scorned wife blurting out everything she knows about Roper's dealings to someone who appears to be part of Roper's cabal, who she has no reason to trust, and could very well report her to Roper? If it had been anyone but Pine she would have ended up at the bottom of the sea.

And why would Pine virtually out himself to Jed? Take the hair from the office, fine. But let her know he was down there? He has no real way of knowing her motivation. Sure, she may very well be rattled by what's she's found out about Roper; but she could also very well make the decision to stick by him. She's not there for love; she't there to support her kid.

And just how dumb can she be? Does she really think farming equipment can turn enough of a profit to buy an island fortress? Not to mention what ever else that he has.

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I thought Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy was one of the most boring films I've ever seen in my entire life, and I love a slow burn, but maybe I need to give it another chance.






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Le Carre adaptations are usually very good, the world od espionage in reality, not that glossy James Bond stuff. But this one, sorry, was a Bond stirred, not shaken - with too much soda (and sugar too)

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