How I Feel about the Small Crimes movie

I’d have to think every author would like to see the movies made from their novels adapted exactly the way the book was written, but in almost all cases that’s not possible. With Small Crimes, a purely faithful adaptation would’ve made a 4-hour movie and would’ve required a much larger budget than the 3-million dollar budget the film had.

I knew before I sold the option that the last third of the book where Joe makes his too late (and ultimately failed) attempt at redemption was going to have to get cut. How did I know this? I made my own attempt at writing a screenplay for the book years before (Nic Pizzolatto, who was a fan of my noir novels and I’d been exchanging emails, started urging me to do this after he traded in his college teaching for TV screenwriting), and there was just no way that that could fit into any 90-minute movie. Scenes have to get cut and characters merged for both time and budget considerations. In the case of Small Crimes, Sheriff Dan Pleasant and the rest of his corrupt sheriff’s office becomes corrupt officer Dan Pleasant. Toni and the stripper who is killed become Toni. Since Joe needs an ally of sorts, Morris and Scott Ferguson get merged into Scott Caldwell (not sure where that name came from?), and Scott changes from an antagonist to an ally. And of course, scenes have to get cut. I would’ve loved to have seen the scene of Joe at the quarry get made, but again, there’s the budget, and in this case, it no longer fits after Dan and his sheriff’s office has been condensed into Dan). And I equally would’ve loved to see Toni beat the hell out of Joe in one of the strip club’s private rooms, but again, that no longer fit.

There’s also the power of film that requires changes. I spent pages writing how batshit crazy Charlotte is—all of which Evan was able to get across with a single look from the great Molly Parker and the way he had decorated her apartment. Evan was able to do a lot of clever stuff to push the narrative of the book forward that you can only do visually, such as the way he’d have Joe practicing what he’s going to say before an encounter—in effect, practicing sounding normal.

Ultimately, the movie is the director’s vision, not the author’s. Fortunately, Evan’s vision and mine overlapped enough so that the movie is faithful to the spirit of the book, and while scenes were cut and changed, the changed scenes and other visuals Evan added connect strongly to the book.

So while I’ve heard other author’s grumble about how their books were adapted, I’m very happy with the Small Crimes movie. Outstanding cast from top to bottom, and while the scenes aren’t necessarily a one-to-one match, the important ones are, and overall, the movie feels very much like the book.