Thumbs up for ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide’

Fans of Douglas Adams’ cult science fiction novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and its far-out sequels have been waiting 25 years for a big screen adaptation.

They’ll be in for a pleasant surprise.

In recent memory, Hollywood’s track record with literary adaptations has been spotty, to say the least. What “Hitchhiker” (often referred to alternately as HHGGTG and H2G2) has going for it is that Adams was firmly behind the development of the film, writing much of the screenplay and cheerleading the project until his untimely death in 2001 at age 49. If you’ve read the books, you’ll immediately recognize Adams’ hand. But even if you haven’t, HHGTTG neophytes will feel right at home in the mad chaos that is the H2G2 universe.

“Hitchhiker’s” existential misadventures begin when hapless Englishman Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman, of the BBC comedy series “The Office”) is in the middle of fighting off the demolition of his home — to make way for a highway bypass. It gets perceptibly more complicated when his best friend, an out-of-this-world fellow by the name of Ford Prefect (Mos Def), informs Arthur he’s got bigger things to worry about. It seems that Earth is scheduled for demolition to make way for a intergalactic freeway — in ten minutes. It also turns out that Earth is not Ford’s home planet.

Dent finds himself, bathrobe, towel and all, whisked away into a universe containing monstrous bureaucrats, clinically depressed robots and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” itself, designed to help answer all the questions of Life, the Universe and Everything. Everything, that is, except the question that goes with the answer, “42,” which may or may not have to do with the Meaning of Life itself.

Still with me? That’s just the beginning of it. From one of the most stunningly orchestrated opening sequences in recent memory, HHGTTG plunges right into matters both superfluous and profound. It’s quirky, sentimental and often hilarious. Freeman fills Arthur’s shoes (or rather, slippers) with the demoralized diligence of a man whose ambitions in life have come down to enjoying the perfect cup of tea. Sam Rockwell is inspired as galaxy president Zaphod Beeblebrox, who’s more rock-star than diplomat. Then there’s the resident robot, Marvin, voiced morosely by Alan Rickman, who manages to deliver some of the choicest lines in the movie.

Director Garth Jennings, previously known for helming music videos for Blur, Fatboy Slim and other edgy music outfits, grasps the long-play format of filmmaking while recognizing Adams’ flair for often outrageous and convoluted storytelling. There’s often a sense of zero gravity in the movement of the plot, which has its moments hanging in space like an amusement park ride, but that’s quickly forgotten as the gravity of the absurd falls into play.

The eternal debate in fan and critic circles will be whether the script’s adaptations move too far from the original source. A love story figures prominently in the film’s plot, which in any other film would be cliched, but in this context seems fresh. Characters such as Trillian (Zooey Deschanel), who are of less consequence in the novels, get more development, while still others, like the space-prophet Humma Kavula (played in measured whimsy by John Malkovich) are entirely new to the film. But that was always Adams’ modus operandi — the creator of the universe constantly tinkering with his creation. His last vision of his galaxy is quite a ride.