smurfboy Review of The Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter (1995)

Truly disastrous - a classic turned into a travesty

[1/10 · 22 February 2005]

Why? That one word could sum up everything that makes this movie so bad. It was made primarily because a lot of Americans got fed up with people suggesting all the classics are English - so what do they do? Change the ending and most of the rest of the plot too! As well as swapping the tragedy at the end for a typically Hollywood lovey-dovey ending, the story is told through the eyes of Hester's daughter Pearl, and halfway through the film the villagers are still guessing that Hester has been having an affair with the minister - even though the novel opens with Hester wearing the Scarlet A for adulteress! The only reason to watch this is to enjoy the irony of a studio thinking 'we'll show the world America has classic novels too', only to rip out everything that made it a classic. If you need any more proof of what a disaster this was, look at what Demi Moore, once Hollywood's highest paid actress, has done since...