>The film's first hour is exposition and introduces many new characters who aren't present in the novel. An example of this is Hester's slave girl, Mituba. The film picks up when Hester arrives in New England before her husband, while the novel picks up Hester exiting jail after her 3-month stint there.
>In the novel, Hester's affair is revealed when she is pregnant. In the movie, she admits her sin when Goody Gotwick tells the Puritian church leaders he thinks Hester is suffering from "morning sickness"
>In the novel, Hester's scarlet "A" is decorative and beautiful so it is easily distinguishable. In the movie, it is just plain and red.
>Pearl is the narrator of the film, and is portrayed as more of an sweet and innocent child than as the unsettling being she is in the novel.
>In the film, Chillingworth dresses up as a Native American and scalps someone who thinks is Dimmsdale. After realizing its not Dimmsdale, he hangs himself. This is well before the film is over. In the novel, Dimmsdale does no scalping, and dies a year after Dimmsdale's death.
>Both Hester's and Dimmsdale's sense of guilt that is present in the novel is gone or reduced in the film. Hester seems happy with her life with Mituba and Pearl. She doesn't do any of the community service that she does in the novel. Dimmsdale's survival in the film doesn't allow to make up for his sins like he does in the novel.
In the film's credit, it kept two things from the novel that is extremely important: the color red and sin. The color is often highlighted in the film and many important things are bathed in red light, or characters wear red clothes. Sin still has a major part, and the judgement of sin is still incorporated in the film.
Professional Reviews:
Roger Ebert
Rotten Tomatoes
Todd McCarthy
The Trailer for the film: