Dear Jackie,
Last night I finally got the chance to see the film adaptation of your bestseller novel Once Is Not Enough. With the book being on the top of my favourite readings ever, I longed for this moment to happen for over 10 years, although I knew I would be disappointed anyway – you said it so yourself.
I am happy/sad/surprised/whatever to realize that it wasn’t that bad as I expected – it was a whole lot WORSE! It must be one of the worst films I’ve ever seen in my life and, believe me, I wasn’t expecting any art film or psychological drama. Where do I begin? The lousy cast – an unexpressed January, a transparent Karla, an empty David -, the horrible experience with trying to tell 30 pages in 1 minute or the faux-moral censorship that led to a non-sex, non-drugs and absolutely non-rock’n'roll movie? Or maybe the absolutely pointless appearence of Mike’s maid, or even the WTF finale?
Honey, it was a whole disaster from the beginning to the very end. For someone like me, a total fan of your writing as a new form of American literature and important step on women’s rights to emancipate their sex lives through exposing them just as men do without being called ‘sluts’, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry; I’ll just admit the book is too deep and would require a whole lot more work in order to put it in the big screen. They underestimated you once again, dear; and for them once should have been enough.
Sincerely yours,
Ana Leorne
