I'm getting really excited for the new movie version of Jane Eyre! That's one of my favorite books of all time, and I've never been entirely satisfied with any movie based on it, so my hopes are high. Michael Fassbender seems like a great choice for Rocherster--dark, dangerous, handsome, a little cruel. I know less about Mia Wasikowska (didn't see Alice) but the reviews so far make it sound like she's perfect for Jane.
Movie adaptations of beloved books are very tricky--we, as readers, form such close attachments to our own ideas of the characters that if the movie doesn't conform to the original, it can be very jarring. I don't personally feel that a movie has to be word for word, to-the-letter faithful in order to be a good adaptation. In fact, sometimes that's a detriment, because what makes a great book isn't the same as what makes a satisfying movie experience. So long as the movie catches the spirit of the book and transports me to the same emotional place, I'm happy!
So what's your favorite movie adaptation of a book?
With January and February over, we're finally moving out of the months designated as Hollywood's landfill, where they dump all the movies they can't believe they ever spent money on--but that they DID spend too much money on just to can. Rule of thumb: if a movie is released in the first two months of the year, you don't want to see it. Spend your ticket money on a good book!
Okay, I'd be happy if everyone did that all the time, anyway, but also I'd be a hypocrite, because I love going to the movies. *Almost* as much as I love to read. And we're getting closer and closer to the great movie months of the year--spring, before the big brainless blockbusters of summer (which, let's be honest, are sometimes awesome, too.)
And this spring, the movie I'm most looking forward to, hands down, is The Adjustment Bureau. Ever since I first saw the preview...and now, after the great review in the Washington Post? I'm even more excited than before! Apparently, Matt Damon and Emily Blunt have sizzling chemistry together. I think you can see it even in this short trailer:
I know I said baking was the thing that most got me into the holiday spirit, and that's true--but music and movies help, too! My family and I have a somewhat eclectic collection of Christmas classics (at least, they're classics as far as we're concerned) that we watch every year. Some of them you might watch, too--some are so weird, you might never have tried them! But all of them are fun, so I'm listing my favorites for you. It's a Wonderful Life - Still one of the best movies ever made, and egregious overplaying of it all through December can't change that. The Ref - Possibly the most profane of our holiday faves, Denis Leary is hysterical as a thief who takes the world's most contentious couple hostage. This is a GREAT movie, and almost no one has ever heard of it. Miracle on 34th St. - The old one, with Maureen O'Hara. It's lovely! Baby Natalie Wood will break your heart. Christmas in Connecticut - Barbara Stanwyck and a memorable cast of secondary characters make this cute romantic comedy about a Martha Stewart-esque writer who doesn't actually know how to cook sparkle! Trapped in Paradise - Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey are brothers--and it just gets less plausible from there. Tons of fun! Scrooged - Of course. Bill Murray? Stapling antlers to mice heads? David Johansen of the New York Dolls as the Ghost of Christmas Past screaming "It's a BONE!" at a dog in a children's show? I'm there. The Grinch Who Stole Christmas - Both the cartoon and the Jim Carrey version. I love them. Mixed Nuts - Steve Martin heads up this incredibly wacky, sweet, slightly sicko movie about a band of do-gooders, a pregnant Juliette Lewis, a cross-dressing Liev Schrieber, and a serial killer. It's a comedy. I swear! Love Actually - One of our newest additions, and I can't wait to watch it every year. Probably my favorite storyline is Liam Neeson and the adorable little boy who's in love for the first time. But Bill Nighy as the aging rockstar is a close second. Oh, they're all good! Die Hard - A holiday tradition in my family that I've since found in other families, and it's one of those things that lets me know right away that we can be close friends. Like choosing Pride & Prejudice over Wuthering Heights, or football over baseball. If you watch Die Hard at Christmas, you're my kind of people.
So what are your favorite holiday movies? Anything weird I might not have seen? I love to discover new xmas faves, but I warn you now, anything with stop-animation creeps me out, so I won't be watching that one where Santa is a young Dutchman, or whatever.
As usual, I'm a little late to the party (I was taught as a child that being on time to a party is actually unconscionably rude) but I still feel the need to chime in on Julie & Julia, the movie. Full disclosure: I have not read Julie Powell's book, one of the sources for the movie. I did, however, read My Life in France, Julia Child's wonderful memoir of her years in Paris and Marseille as she learned to cook and began her masterwork, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.
The first thing that must be said is that Julia Child was an amazing woman with a huge, warm personality that draws you in when you're watching just a thirty-minute, black-and-white PBS cooking show. A full color movie of her life couldn't help but be even more appealing--especially with Meryl Streep turning in a near-flawless performance. Every single moment Meryl/Julia was onscreen, I was either smiling so hard my cheeks ached, or tearing up. I can't remember the last time I was so affected by a movie. Stanley Tucci was also fantastic as Paul Child, bringing a palpable affection and gut-deep realism to the role of Mr. Julia. I loved everything about them. I wanted their segments of the movie to go on and on.
Not totally the case with the Julie Powell segments. Backing up--before seeing the movie, I read some reviews and talked to some friends who all seemed to agree that the Julie Powell character, a food blogger played by Amy Adams, was whiny, annoying, and useless to the point of dragging the movie down. In fact, I'd heard this about her book, which was why I never read it. So I was primed to dislike her portion of the movie. And while I wasn't as affected by her story as I was by Julia's, I felt that Julie Powell and her quest to cook her way through MtAoFC in a year was integral to the structure of the movie. The comparisons between the two women made Julia's sincerity and verve shine even brighter; the quality of the relationship between Julia and Paul was even more clearly an equal, loving partnership when compared with Julie's sometimes shabby treatment of her sweet but forgettable husband.
But even more than that, the movie needed Julie because she alone had a transformative experience. Julia was Julia, from the first beat of the movie to the last. She was herself, in the glorious, solid flesh--she started out wonderful, so it didn't matter that she didn't really learn or change in any way over the course of the two hours. Julie, though, was a different person by the end of the movie. Her story dramatized perfectly the power of Julia Child's life and work to inspire people and to change the way they view the world. No, I didn't always love Julie, and their were moments when I wanted to shout, as most of the reviewers did, "Get a life!" But that's exactly the point--that's what she was trying to do. And eventually, she succeeded, which gave the movie its structure and satisfying ending point. Without Julie and her eventual ah-ha moment, there's no movie.
But without Julia Child, there would've been very little joy--and I wouldn't have come home and immediately scrapped our plans to grill burgers in favor of cooking steak with sauce Bercy (white wine, butter, and shallots--yum!!), baked tomatoes, and a green salad with a ravigote dressing (vinaigrette with chopped herbs, capers, and onions,) all from Mastering the Art. Julia strikes again!
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is almost my favorite of the entire series. The movie comes out July 15th, and boy does it look like they're not skimping on the dark stuff! Which works for me, because it's all a ramp up to the big final showdown in Deathly Hallows, but I hope they don't short shrift the romantic stuff in HBP. My favorite thing so far, though, is this poster of Alan Rickman as Severus Snape.
A thread on the Romance Divas forum yesterday asked about people's favorite movie villains, and as I thought about it I realized how many of them were played by Alan Rickman! The Sheriff of Nottingham in the otherwise-forgettable Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Hans Gruber in the first (and best) Die Hard, and of course, Severus Snape. With that gorgeous baritone and those deep, dark eyes, he's a perfect typecast villain. But what makes his portrayals of bad guys interesting and memorable is the depth of feeling he brings to the character. There's more going on for these villains than the simple wish to do evil. The inner life Rickman creates for his characters shines through his eyes, his face, his body, and comes perilously close to making you root for the bad guy to win.
Especially as Snape. Severus Snape is one of the most conflicted, embattled characters in modern literature, and Alan Rickman was inspired casting. I can't imagine anyone else in the part, and I can't wait for this movie!
I grew up in Virginia, went to school in Philadelphia, spent five years in Manhattan, then moved to a teeny town in Ohio. Now I live in fabulous, funky, fun Austin, Texas, which is very inspiring...
Once an editor of romance novels, now I'm writing my own. My Recipe for Love series combines contemporary romance with my love of food, restaurants, and smokin' hot chefs!
