Customer Reviews

Three Men in a Boat

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'Three Men In A Boat' is one of the funniest books ever written. However, from the film-maker's point of view, the trouble with the book is that it has very little plot. Three men decide to spend a fortnight on the Thames, rowing up from Kingston to Oxford and back again. They are invovled in various humorous incidents, and recall other incidents from past trips. And that's it.

Disatisfied with this, the makers of this film version decided to give the book more of a plot by having them puruse a trio of pretty girls up the river. A few passages from the book are quite well done: getting lost in Hampton Court maze, getting the oblivious courting couple to tow their boat, trying to open the tin of pineapple. However, much of the humour of the book has been replaced by heavy-handed and not very funny facrical incidents with the three girls, culminating in a very tedious cricket match.

A pity that the film-makers didn't have the courage to just film the book as it was.

Reading Jerome K. Jerome's novel was one of the highlights of my literary life. I would rate the novel as the funniest book ever written. The movie tries and has a good cast, but just doesn't reach the levels of the book. Still, an enjoyable view... but read the book first.