Guns, Puccini and sex in the china cupboard

Bel Canto is an adaptation of the Ann Patchett novel first published in 2001, which I remembered as being brilliant and unputdownable, even if I recalled only a few of the details — hostages, an opera singer; that was about it. So I found it on the bookshelf and read it again, which was daft. The book is brilliant (and unputdownable) and now I can’t come to the film without comparing them, which is unfair and not helpful. But I’m going to say it anyway: this isn’t as good as the book. Not nearly.

Patchett’s novel was inspired by the Peruvian hostage crisis of 1996, when members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement kidnapped a group of high-level diplomats, government and business people who had gathered for a party at the Japanese ambassador’s official residence in Lima. But what this narrative lacked, Patchett must have thought, is an opera singer, which isn’t unreasonable, as what situation wouldn’t be substantially enlivened by having an opera singer in its mix?