I just finished reading this short story and was interested in seeing the adaption. While nothing could have matched the mastery of the original, the most glaring problem for me was the over the top melodramatic dialogue. Hawthorne is rather cool and I was surprised how modern he reads. The film's dialogue was dripping with sentiment in the same way that Rappacini's plants exuded poison.
Another distraction (kind of petty but you be the judge) was that Rappaccini's garden was supposed to have only three recognizable plants (all highly poisonous) with the rest his own creations , but the many shots of the garden included vast numbers of easily recognizable garden-variety plants such as Chinese Evergreen, elephant ear and columbine.
Basically the film fails to evoke the atmosphere of the short story, and in its attempt to convey the plot, manages to flatten it. Once again, the book is better...but I would love to see a well-made version of this tale.
Another distraction (kind of petty but you be the judge) was that Rappaccini's garden was supposed to have only three recognizable plants (all highly poisonous) with the rest his own creations , but the many shots of the garden included vast numbers of easily recognizable garden-variety plants such as Chinese Evergreen, elephant ear and columbine.
Basically the film fails to evoke the atmosphere of the short story, and in its attempt to convey the plot, manages to flatten it. Once again, the book is better...but I would love to see a well-made version of this tale.