I love this movie, too - and the book. I think the movie is really very faithful to the story and to the spirit of the book, with just a few departures - in the book, McCarthy focuses a lot on the girls' mothers, particularly Helena's and Dottie's (I believe I read that she was initially more interested in the mothers than the daughters). And of course, they couldn't really delve into Lakey's lesbianism in the film the way McCarthy does in the book, but I think they got the point across. I thought the casting was excellent - it's hard to even pick out a few as "best," but I did think Pettet was great as Kay, and Walter as Libby - and Hagman was appropriately awful as Harald. Oh! and let us not forget Carrie Nye as Norine - perfect.
Maggie-the-schnoodle