Next Year: Veronika Decides to Die

I’ve always had mixed reactions about Paolo Coelho’s works. Some of his books, I love (The Witch of Portabello, The Alchemist), some I’m awed about for some reason (Veronika Decides to Die), while others (By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept) I don’t get at all. I’ve always assumed it’s because of the different voices of the translators. It’s similar to the works of Jostein Gaarder - I love The Solitaire Mystery but reading The Orange Girl didn’t feel like reading the same author to me.   

But here’s something I am definitely going to see: Veronika Decides to Die is coming to cinemas in 2009 and it stars no less than Sarah Michelle Gellar. Now if anybody have doubts about the acting abilities of SMG, I cannot agree with you. Watching seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer fully convinced me that playing this part of a tragically sad, suicidal woman is something she’s going to carry in a phenomenal way. Here’s a peek at the trailer:

Eh, not really a feel-good movie, which I expect you get by the title alone. While rumors of a new Buffy movie are all but unfounded for now, I’m looking forward to this one to get my Buffyverse fix and to see how one of the books I enjoyed reading gets to be translated on the big screen. Quite frankly, I didn’t think it’s a good movie material when I was reading it; it’s a little too bleak for the most part. It felt like going bungee jumping sans safety equipment. (Yeah, I can probably get less literal than that.) But there’s always hope, even for Veronika. And that’s what I’m going to come for.