This is Where I Read You – Books on Film

“If you could remember every last time, you’d never stop grieving.”

Generally, I make an effort to read the book version of any story before seeing a film adaptation. In some cases this means I never actually see the film version like the time I got around to reading The Da Vinci Code and everyone had seen it and no one wanted to see it again because apparently I didn’t miss anything (Tom Hanks is still the best).

Last week (thanks to Penguin Canada) I won passes to see This is Where I Leave You two days before its official release, which was exciting even if it left me scrambling to find a copy of the book to motor through (success!). I liked the book, and in general was happy with the movie. I appreciated the jokes they added in,wept through multiple scenes, and was surprised at how much I bought Adam Driver as Phillip because I just couldn’t picture it while reading.

I try not to be too critical of movie adaptations. I realize it’s a different medium so not all the same storytelling devices will work and also sticking too close to the book can make a movie feel long and boring (sorry Harry Potter 1 & 2, this was your downfall). But I don’t like when the message of a story suddenly changes on film, a particularly egregious crime in He’s Just Not That Into You which I admittedly didn’t read and sadly did watch and wasn’t the whole point of the book that romcoms are fooling you and you’re not the exception to the rule so don’t try to trick yourself into believing you are but then the movie had the MOST typical romcom outcomes? Who approved this?!

Anyway, this is what I got from TIWILY the book: love is hard and doesn’t always last. The fact that Jen and Judd fell apart doesn’t diminish the depth of their relationship, or completely negate the possibility of rekindling it. Penny presents a very different alternative to Jen but you’re left not knowing what Judd wants, and neither does he so by the end he hasn’t made any life decisions. That will be in the sequel! (Just kidding.)

This is what I got from the movie: there is only one real way of being in love. Jen/Quinn and Judd only got married because that seemed like the thing to do even though they never really had that truly deep connection, something Judd CAN see himself having with Penny after a week of spending time with her while he’s in mourning for his father and his marriage. So even though he’s taking off to be alone and get himself together until his baby is born, he’ll call her in 9 months because for some reason when he’s a father he’ll also be able to begin a new relationship which frankly seems like a lot to deal with at once.

If I’d never read the book I would still like the movie, but I would roll my eyes at the obvious-ness of the ending because life is messier than that. Having read the book, I roll my eyes even more because come on, Jonathan Tropper set up a beautiful, fuzzy, messy, unsure ending and you ruined it with your romantic ice rink scenes you Hollywood people!

A similar thing happened in The Book Thief, one of my favourite novels which for some reason felt compelled to end the film with Rudy trying in death to say I love you, while the book offered a much more poignant and heartbreaking silence.

On a related note:

Great movie adaptations – Stardust, Lord of the Rings, does Hook count?

Terrible movie adaptations – Ella Enchanted. UGH. I don’t even need other examples. Worst ever.

Dracula is scary and now it’s for babies

I don’t know if you’ve seen Nosferatu, but I have, and can attest that it’s some freaky Dracula knockoff business. Yet despite my distaste for horror, I recently read Bram Stoker’s original.

I don’t have an e-reader, but I do have a Kobo app linked to my mom’s account on my phone and I frequently download free classics because awesome. Free classics! I read them on the subway when I forget a novel. But I digress. Dracula! It gave me the creeps even on a brightly lit subway car. Then one night I couldn’t sleep and I thought reading might help so I got through two tiny cell phone size pages before realizing this is an AWFUL idea and now I’m going to have nightmares. So explain THIS:

 

I’m all for getting kids into books and reading and classics early on, and I know that many original fairytales involve death and misery that were conveniently edited out of the Disney versions. But Dracula and his minions prey on children! Then they cutesy him up and plunk him on a board book! Why!

It’s billed as a “counting primer” which oddly enough brings to mind the equally fanged but much more loveable Sesame Street Count: One castle, ah ah ah…two friends ah ah ah…

At least there’s two until DRACULA EATS ONE OF THOSE FRIENDS. Sort of. He at least (spoiler) bites her neck and transforms her into a child-preying monster, ultimately forcing her former fiancé and other suitors who all remain friends and grieve together to hunt down her lusty physical form, chop off its head and fill it with garlic, saving her soul.

So…it’s a happy ending? But I just think kids should hit grade school before they’re introduced to blood-sucking demons.

The Book Thief – Trailer One

A couple weeks old, but nonetheless I give you, The Book Thief trailer. I’m torn between terrified and thrilled. It looks like a movie I would want to see even if I didn’t know the story (minus the jarring American voiceover with classic trailer lines such as “courage will guide her”) but this is one of my all-time favourite books, and the higher the bar’s been set, the further there is to fall. (see: Ella Enchanted).

Week Nineteen – Ella Enchanted

The cover that graces my tattered childhood copy

“’Nothing should be dictated!’ An idiotic remark to a future king, but I was thinking of Lucinda.”

Ella Enchanted is basically the reason I started this project. I think I had role model characters for girls on the mind – The Hunger Games and the emergence of Katniss Everdeen as a pop culture icon prompted some renewed conversation among myself and friends, many of whom also read about Ella years ago.

I put off picking up Ella Enchanted for a long time because I was afraid it wouldn’t live up to my expectations – maybe I romanticized the whimsical world of Frell, and Ella wasn’t the kick-ass heroine I remembered. But fear not! She totally is.

As a baby Ella is presented with the “gift” of obedience, meaning she is forced to follow any command, no matter how dangerous or impossible. For most of her life, sheltered by the protection and love of her mother and cook/fairy godmother, this amounts to mainly frustrations and inconveniences rather than anything of significant consequence. But after her mother’s death, she is sent away to finishing school with her stepsisters-to-be, one of whom figures out the basics of her curse and turns her life into a living hell.

If some of those details sound a little familiar, it’s because why yes this is a re-telling of Cinderella, a fact I did not grasp as a child until well into the book. Of course there are some obvious additions/subtractions/tweaks to the story, which make both the tale and the character much more engaging.

For one thing Ella’s not trapped in her mansion scrubbing the floors (at least not the whole time) so the reader gets introduced to all of Kyrria, full of ogres, giants, gnomes, elves, each with their own traits, rituals and even languages. The fully developed settings make Ella by extension feel so much more real. Don’t get me wrong, Gus Gus was cute, but some ribbon-threading birds and button-stealing mice pale in comparison to the universe Ella inhabits.

Like many fairy tales, including the original Cinderella, the story largely takes place after Ella’s mother has died – but not entirely. The reader gets to know Eleanor, Ella’s mother, in the opening pages. We witness Ella’s grief when she gets sick, and ultimately dies. And we understand the influence Ella’s mother had in her life – she’s not just a nameless, faceless figure that was always out of the picture.

Similarly, while Ella may (spoiler alert!) end up marrying a Prince (Prince Charmont, to be exact, and yes he is a charmer) she marries him despite his princely status, not because of it. She falls for the actual guy – the freckle-faced, banister-sliding, ogre-fighting guy. They fall in love long before the midnight ball, but she realizes they can’t be wed so long as she’s cursed, for the sake of both Char and the kingdom of Kyrria. So in an odd twist on the original tale, Char tells a disguised Ella while sharing a dance that he has no intentions of marrying – his heart having already been broken – while she wholeheartedly agrees, as she didn’t attend the ball to secure a husband.

Of course, what kind of fairy tale would it be if they didn’t live happily ever after? But in this case it’s no prince who rushes in to rescue the damsel in distress. Ella’s got to break the curse herself, and in the mean time she turns down Char’s love to protect him, making her the ultimate hero of the story even if he doesn’t realize he’s being saved until after the danger is passed.  Ignoring that they marry when Ella is only 16 (it’s still a middle-ages-era-fantasy-story people), this is a fairy tale I can fully get behind.

A final note: this book was adapted as a film starring Anne Hathaway and it was TERRIBLE please never watch it, they changed the whole plot and made a mockery of the story and I literally cried.