Book Review - The Handmaid's Tale

Being stuck at home with a cold sure gives you a chance to catch up on your reading.

My pick was Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, which was interesting and disturbing. So of course I enjoyed it immensely.

You can find plot summaries everywhere on the internet, so I'll just stick to my impressions.

This was my first exposure to Atwood's writing, and I really liked the word play in the book (Scrabble is very important in the book). Yes, of course, the humor is dark. That's why shredded fruits of the Date Palm turn into "date rape", or rather vice versa. I think because of this there is a lot of inherent symbolism to wade through. Which isn't bad; it gives the book re-read value.

The book, in quite obvious ways, forces the reader to think about gender roles, as well as why feminism is so tightly tied to the bra-burning antics of the 1970s.

Strangely enough, the idea of right-wing nuts assassinating Congress and blaming it on Islamic fundamentalists seems almost plausible in this day and age. Which is creepy because I definitely don't want to live in a dystopic society.

If they were to make a better movie (I heard the movie made in the 1980's really sucked), here are my casting choices:
Natalie Portman as Offred
William Hurt as The Commander (but on the other hand Neal McDonough or Ed Harris would be absolutely chilling - I guess age shouldn't matter if you really wanted this to be a thriller)
Nicole Kidman as Serena Joy
Jude Law, Eric Bana and Clive Owen would be good choices for Nick (unfortunately probably too old if you used Neal McDonough), but so would Christian Bale - I envision that character as having a dark, smouldering vulnerability that is really attractive to Offred. Jesse Bradford is too immature.
Angelina Jolie as Moira
Mena Suvari as Ofwarren
Scarlett Johansson as Ofglen
Ashley Judd as one of the Aunts (Aunt Elizabeth, maybe)

Any other casting ideas?