Barjo

So much about this very faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's autobiographical mainstream novel _Confessions of a Crap Artist_ is right, that its shortcomings are all the more regrettable. Surprisingly, transplanting the story from 50's California to contemporary France is not one of them -- this works quite well. But the two central characters, the eponymous Jack and his sister Fay (here simply "Barjo" and "Fanfan") have been significantly changed, and not for the better. Barjo is much less edgy and marginal than Jack Isidore, making the sympathy he eventually earns for himself far less of a revelation. And Fay Hume, the irresistible, dynamic and dangerous tornado of a woman (based on Dick's third wife Anne) at the heart of the novel, is here dumbed down to just another suburban housewife -- it's hard to see why the Dick character, Michel, leaves his "perfectly good wife" for her. But the other characters are wonderfully drawn (particularly Fanfan's husband), and the source material is so very strong, that the film remains rewarding (with a particularly wonderful epiphany of an ending). 8/10.