A Different Sense of Time

I was pleasantly surprised by the film version of The Hours. I liked far better than the book - and given a choice, I'll generally take any book over any movie, adaption or no. But this was one of those rare cases when I not only approve of the translation of a book to a movie, but I actually like the movie version better.
There were a lot of changes made, some purposeful - internal dialogue converted to comments that were never in the book, or an event that would have fit the movie poorly removed - and some seemingly random, such as dates changing from the ones given in the text, or Clarissa buying different flowers. The omission that strikes me the most glaringly, however, is the disappearance of Mary Krull.
It's easy to see why she was excised - she'd be extremely controversial, and most of her lines would have to be rewritten to allow the movie to keep its rating. She isn't a character that would appeal to those financing a movie. Some things had to be removed to prevent this from becoming the length of the uncut Lord of the Rings.
Her removal changed the movie a great deal - a great deal for the better, in my opinion. In the text, this was an angry, uncomfortable scene. With her gone, it becomes comforting and sentimental - mother and daughter talking quietly, joking with each other.
Mary Krull is gone, and I, for one, don't miss her a bit.