Rating: 
Summary: An extraordinary piece of literature.
Review: This is one of the best books I have ever read. If you pick it up, you'll have a hard time putting it down until you've finished the entire book. For those who don't like it, you've obviously missed the point and are too naive to see it. END
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining Movie, But The Book is a Better Bet
Review: This movie was very entertaining, but those who have read the book will note a handful of obvious changes. Those who have not read the book will probably find some of the terms alien, seeing as the movie does nothing to explain them. As, for the ending, readers of the book will be surprised. I don't know if Margaret Atwood approved of how they ended the movie in such a definite and different way from the book, but I think that the book is a much better way of hearing this unforgetable story. However, book or movie; it still has a wonderful plot and clever facets. If you haven't read the book, read it first. Its a lot better than the movie. I don't read books a lot, but I couldn't put it down. I applaude Margaret Atwood.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent
Review: This was a decent movie with fair acting and some interesting points, but it fails to go anywhere.While we get some background on the necessity of the Handmaids, we never really learn the purpose of the war, or any details like that. The movie is pretty boring, with passive acting which really doesn't stand out, and Natasha Richardson wasn't very convincing at all that she wanted to see her daughter again. I don't know; the book was very good, and although the movie follows it, it lacks something, andis just a long boring mishmash of potential. If this is on TV, you might want to watch, but otherwise just read the book and leave it at that.
Rating:
Summary: See this movie or read the Book before it's too late!
Review: Though the book is better than the movie, the movie stands well on its own. Like other reviewers, I saw the movie several years before I read the book. Strange, topical coincidence is that Bush's nominee for Secy of Defense if the chairman of Gilead Sciences. (The country created by the religous zealots in the book/movie is called the Republic of Gilead.) Is it time to get out of the US before fiction becomes fact?
Rating:
Summary: People get the wrong interpretations
Review: What most of the arch-liberals commenting on this film here seem to completely miss is that the state religion depicted in this movie is not representative of Christianity. But I am not surprised anymore by ignorant people harping on about the USA already being "controlled by Christian fundamentalists" or the "shock horror" of such coming to pass.
Anyway, for anyone who cares to notice, the insignia (eye and pyramid) of the movie's Republic of Gilead (located somewhere in present day America) is what is commonly known as the sign of the Freemasons secret society as well as the New Age movement. Thus the Gilead in the movie is really a depiction of what could happen if a secret society with all its intra-society obligations and weird rituals, or the ever pervasive New Age movement with its own dogma, took control, politically, socially and militarily. Obviously, elements of Taliban or Iran-like regimes are also depicted, particularly regarding the subjugation of women.
Take note of the background news flashes throughout the movie - references to the war on the borders, insurgencies by Southern Baptist guerillas (!); but all carefully sanitized news pointing to state media control as was prevalent in the Soviet Bloc and is still present in many dictatorships today.
I don't really care about Margaret Atwood's "original intent" or the lefties' interpretations of her work. This movie was intriguing and enjoyable for its portrayal of the desire for freedom (personal, social, religious) that runs fiercely in any human being that cares. It's interesting that this movie came out the same year as Not Without My Daughter, based on the real-life experiences of an American woman trapped by her marriage to a Muslim in oppressive Iran.
This is the first movie I saw starring Nathasha Richardson, and she captivated me. Great beauty and talent. Robert Duvall was also excellent as the slimy Commander and Faye Dunaway as his disenchanted yet loyal wife.
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