Don’t panic. It’s just a movie. Take a breath. Relax. Double-check where your towel is. Everything is going to be fine. I have seen some claims made that the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy has a plot too convoluted, characters too absurd, and premises too obtuse to make for a watchable movie for the small handful of English-reading earthlings that haven’t already consumed the Douglas Adams classic (though increasingly inaccurately-named) Hitchhiker’s Trilogy. This is patently false, and I am an ardent supporter of professional film critics that claim otherwise being stripped of their columns and dumped in the street.

Unlike other movies that are ostensibly based upon popular books, the Hitchhiker’s Guide suffers from no warping of the original content. This is not to say it is identical to the books, but upon reflection on the origin of the Hitchhiker’s Guide, one realizes that it has always been a work in progress, with changes in details, the roles of individual characters, and even the general plot-arc molding readily to fits the needs of the story’s medium. The original content is warped, but does not suffer for it.

The casting was better than I would have hoped for. Martin Freeman makes for an excellent Arthur Dent, faithfully recreating the hapless protagonist for the tale. Mos Def is all you could want from a Ford Prefect, somehow managing to be dapper, wise, and somewhat odd, with the mellow ease one would expect from an intergalactic hitchhiker. Sam Rockwell brings the charm, self-confidence, and schmooziness we need from a Zaphod Beeblebrox. Zooey Deschanel adds a lot to what I had always regards as the somewhat shallow, uninteresting character of Trillian, an earthling that quite readily fell into the background in the book but provides a solid performance in the film.

Anyhow, don’t take my word for it. Go see for yourself. Whether you’ve read up on your Douglas Adams or not, it’s well worth the price of a matinee ticket or two. They don’t quite hit you over the head with why Ford is so dilligent about keeping a towel handy, but some things are better left unexplained.