Garth Jennings had one of the least enviable jobs in film in 2005: turning Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy into a movie without Adams, who died in 2001 before production began. The result is dedicated to him, and it plays like a sincere attempt to honor a voice no one else could quite supply.
Trailer, via CharlesP2009.
Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent
The film opens on a Thursday morning, with Arthur Dent discovering his house will be demolished for a bypass. He lies down in front of the bulldozers. His friend Ford Prefect talks him into the pub instead, then explains he is an alien from the vicinity of Betelgeuse and a researcher penning a new edition of the Hitchhiker’s Guide. The Earth is demolished by the Vogons that day. Arthur survives, which is the joke and the tragedy at once.
Freeman carries the panic well. Adams said the only character who had to be British, indeed English, was Arthur Dent.
The Heart of Gold
Arthur and Ford, after being tortured with Vogon poetry and ejected into space, are picked up by the starship Heart of Gold. On board:
- Zaphod Beeblebrox, the newly elected President of the Galaxy, Ford’s “semi-cousin”
- Trillian, an Earth woman Arthur had met before
- Marvin, a clinically depressed android
Zaphod stole the ship. He wants the Ultimate Question to match Deep Thought’s answer: “42.” He thinks it is on Magrathea.
The Point-of-View Gun
Zaphod’s opponent Humma Kavula, played by John Malkovich, offers Magrathea’s coordinates in exchange for the Point-of-View gun. Deep Thought built it. It makes whoever is shot temporarily empathize with the shooter. It is a good gag and an underused one.
Voices Worth the Ticket
The cast is the film’s best argument. Warwick Davis performs Marvin on set, with Alan Rickman providing the voice. Helen Mirren voices Deep Thought. Stephen Fry voices the Guide itself. Bill Nighy plays Slartibartfast, the planet builder. Sam Rockwell plays Zaphod with a commitment that borders on mania.
The studio wanted American actors to draw an American audience while limiting American cultural influence, according to producer interviews. Casting the Guide came down to someone Adams himself had wanted: Stephen Fry.
What Adams Left Behind
The script was based on Adams’ last draft. According to the production, the substantive new ideas were his, written for the film. He had reinvented Hitchhiker’s across radio, television and books already. Adams knew character development and key relationships were integral to making it a movie.
The film never quite gives those relationships the room they need, and that is this paper’s judgment, not a claim about what Adams wanted.
The Improbability Drive
The Heart of Gold’s improbability drives allow Magrathea’s coordinates to be found only by trial and error. It is a fine excuse for set pieces, and the film uses it that way. It is also where the movie’s rhythm sags. Adams’ best invention was always the Guide’s editorial voice, and the film leaves it mostly to Fry’s narration.
Where It Ranks
Our own ordering of the versions of Hitchhiker’s, offered as opinion rather than fact:
- The radio series, where the Guide’s voice was born
- The books, where Adams could digress without cost
- The 2005 film, which has the cast but not the looseness
A 6.3 Out of 10
The 2005 Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a faithful adaptation of a book that was never really a book. It has the right cast, the right jokes and the right sadness. Whether it has the looseness that made Adams’ version work in other media is a matter of taste; this paper’s view is that it does not. Fry’s Guide, Rickman’s Marvin and Freeman’s Arthur are worth the 109 minutes. The rest is a bypass.
6.3 of 10, per Metacritic (63/100).
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
