Good as the book

Four films that translate the page well

Gone Girl

Directed by David Fincher

Adapted from:'Gone Girl' by Gillian Flynn

The plot: With his wife's disappearance the focus of an intense media circus, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) has the spotlight turned on him when it is suspected he may not be innocent.

Verdict: "For all its simmering malice and buried secrets, it is worth remembering that this is David Fincher in fun mode: unnerving, shocking and provoking for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, but mostly sickness."

The Drop

Directed by Michaël R Roskam

Adapted from:'The Drop' by Dennis Lehane

The plot: Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) finds himself at the centre of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighbourhood's past.

Verdict: ''The film isn't static or stagey. It's cut and scored with rhythmic, bluesy confidence, biding its time, and keeping a lot of narrative cards close to its chest."

A Most Wanted Man

Directed by Anton Corbijn

Adapted from:'A Most Wanted Man' by John le Carré

The plot: A Chechen Muslim illegally immigrates to Hamburg, where he gets caught in the war on terror with spy Günther Bachmann (Philip Seymour Hoffman) on the case.

Verdict: "Directed beautifully, Philip Seymour Hoffman seems to have the whole film under lock and key. The instruments of his success, or failure, are gathered up so tightly in Hoffman's clasp, you get white knuckles just looking at him."

The Railway Man

Directed by Jonathan Teplitzky

Adapted from:'The Railway Man' by Eric Lomax

The plot: Former British Army officer Eric Lomax (Colin Firth), who was tormented by the Japanese during World War 2, learns that the man responsible is still alive and sets out to confront him.

Verdict: ''The film does nothing if not respectable justice to Lomax's ordeal - it gives him a stiff-upper-lip salute. That's a gesture we can value, without necessarily wanting to salute it back."