it's not life that matters but the journey...

That's a fun article about Johnny Depp's roles, while I (obviously) knew that his roles were not of the norm (which is part of the appeal) I'd never seen it analysed quite that way before.

I couldn't watch Before Night Falls, I think I ended up skipping through it to find Johnny's scenes, the rest of it didn't interest me at all.

As for film adaptations of books (or Shakespeare), I'm afraid I have to disagree with you on that. Purism is commendable but artistic vision does not need to be restricted by source material, especially when the source has been adapted many times.

Off the top of my head, there is one film (Manhunter) I didn't like because it managed to throw out the best material of a book I'd enjoyed (and the title so I can forgive it somewhat and pretend it's not a Hannibal Lecter film) but I've come to realise that film is an entirely different artistic medium to books so there have to be differences.

In Charlie and the Chocolate factory Johnny's actual performance may not be exactly like the Wonka of the book, but the film itself is a far truer adaptation than the Gene Wilder version (which, incidentally, Roald Dahl himself hated and they rewrote his screenplay, although they left him with a writing credit), though that is not the main reason I prefer the newer adaptation.

I was probably just the right age when Baz Luhman's Romeo + Juliet came out and I really enjoyed it (and I agree with bitchygrrl on that, even our English teacher allowed us to watch the film when we were studying the play!).

But anyway, I've just come back from seeing Alice in Wonderland and I thoroughly enjoyed it, I can't disagree more with that review you've linked to (apart from the dig at 3D) Empire's is far more even handed here.

The only reason anyone could possibly think that the Mad Hatter is Alice's love interest is because all the people from her real life are represented by characters in Wonderland and the Mad Hatter appears to be the man everyone wants her to marry and I suppose he also represents her father (he definitely has multiple personalities) so it's more of a paternal love than a romantic one.

Well, this has turned into a long comment! I'm not sure if I've managed to properly explain my thoughts, I know my feelings but can't always express them coherently!

Good luck with your Japanese lessons! *hug*