Some years ago, I read my first Inspector Wallander book, a volume called The Man who Smiled. I half liked the book: the first part is a fine police procedural about a couple of mysterious murders of seemingly respectable citizens that happen in some Swedish provincial town, the investigation being led by taciturn, middle-aged Inspector Wallander, who has come back from retirement to solve this and has obviously been scarred by life. However, the second part of the book was less interesting (SPOILERS AHEAD): halfway into the book it becomes clear that a mysterious and supposedly humanitarian local multimillionaire – who seems almost like a villain from a James Bond movie - is strongly connected to the killings, and the book becomes more silly and less believable.
So here is the adaptation, made for British television, starring Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. That Swedish characters are played by British actors speaking English is not much of a problem for me. Branagh is fine, although he makes Wallander look more washed out than in the book, if memory does not fail. The villain here is played by Rupert Graves, and he seems less slimy and charismatic than in the novel. There is a lot of moody music and a somewhat artsy photography, which I don't think was really necessary. The expository material about the clues is dealt very rapidly, probably to get all of the novel in an hour and a half time slot (I suppose one can still get the bulk of the plot, if one hasn't read the book). Despite these caveats, I think this adaptation gets from me a passing mark. It is nothing spectacular, but it is professionally made. It certainly could have been worse.
So here is the adaptation, made for British television, starring Kenneth Branagh as Wallander. That Swedish characters are played by British actors speaking English is not much of a problem for me. Branagh is fine, although he makes Wallander look more washed out than in the book, if memory does not fail. The villain here is played by Rupert Graves, and he seems less slimy and charismatic than in the novel. There is a lot of moody music and a somewhat artsy photography, which I don't think was really necessary. The expository material about the clues is dealt very rapidly, probably to get all of the novel in an hour and a half time slot (I suppose one can still get the bulk of the plot, if one hasn't read the book). Despite these caveats, I think this adaptation gets from me a passing mark. It is nothing spectacular, but it is professionally made. It certainly could have been worse.