Does this ever work?

Thanks to my sister, Margaret, I became hooked on Henning Mankell over the past year. He is a Swedish author who mainly writes detective fiction (but is branching out), and his lead character over the years is Kurt Wallander. I finished "Before the Frost" over the weekend (my ninth Mankell book, I believe), and the timing was perfect for a couple reasons. One, I was in Chicago for Marg's graduation. Two, "Before the Frost" basically ends on September 11, 2001, and my next read (Thomas Friedman's "Longitudes and Attitudes") is based around that date. More on that work in a future post.

Anyway, I did a quick search this morning and found that Wallander has made the transition to the TV screen. I'm intrigued but skeptical.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any times when a big screen movie or TV movie based on a novel lived up to my reading of said writing. Wait...let me add to that. I can't recall a time when a film based on a novel that I enjoyed lived up to my expectations and imagination.

Anyone? Does this ever work?