Mission: READ

This month’s Books & Bites theme was C-U at the Cinema–featuring books that have been or soon will be made into movies.

Have you ever thought that your whole life changed because of one event or one person? How about one dog? In Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo, India Opal Buloni believes just that. Because her daddy is a preacher, he and Opal move a lot and Opal finds it hard to make friends. Since her mom left the family when Opal was a toddler, her dad is the only one she’s got–and he often ”hides his head in his turtle shell.” Opal thinks that her new hometown, Naomi, Florida will be no different from all the other places she’s lived–until she “claims” a stray dog that’s wreaking havoc in the local grocery store.  Winn-Dixie, as she calls her new pet, helps Opal befriend the local librarian, the ex-con pet store clerk, Otis, and Gloria Dump, whom all the town kids call a witch. In his unique way, Winn-Dixie also helps Opal sort out her feelings for her mother.

The movie, Because of Winn-Dixie, was released in 2005 and is now available on DVD.  It follows the book fairly well in terms of plot, characters, and especially “heart.”  In the extra features on the DVD, the director even talks about how important it was to find a dog that looked like the one on the cover of the book.  He was very tuned in to the fact that readers of the book would be be the ones going to see his movie. It is definitely one of the best family movies I have seen in a long time. Check out the movie’s official website.

Sometimes a movie follows the book very well and sometimes, well…. Now, I must admit that I have not seen the movie Aquamarine. However, it scares me. If you have read the book, you know why. If you have seen the movie’s website or trailer, you know why.

Aquamarine by Alice Hoffman is a short novel that has a lot to say. Two friends are enjoying their last summer together before one moves away to Florida with her grandparents. They spend most of their time at the old beach club, where no one goes anymore and which will be torn down at the end of the summer. One day after a big storm, they find a mermaid that was tossed into the abandoned swimming pool by the 60+ mph winds. Aquamarine reuses to leave until the girs arrange for her to meet Raymond, the gorgeous snack bar attendant–even though the lack of saltwater is killing her. This brief book explores friendship and determination, and its tone and mood completely engage you as you read. 

And I guess that’s what bothers me most about the movie–the website boasts that it’s “a fish-out-of-water-comedy,” but the book is not at all funny, and it’s not supposed to be. Does that make it a bad movie? No.  Will it most likely disappoint me as a reader of the book? Yes.  Perhaps my daughter, who is in 4th grade, is right when she says, “Maybe the movie is good and the book is good, but for completely different reasons.  Maybe so.  Has anyone seen the movie and/or read the book and care to agree or disagree with me?

Want to know more about Because of Winn-Dixie or Aquamarine? Then check them out and read them yourself (or in this case, see the movie).

Mission: Accomplished

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Like millions of others this past weekend, I saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. It is difficult, then, to write something that reviewers all over the world haven’t written already.  However, since I didn’t read any of the reviews before (or after) seeing the movie, you readers are getting an honest response from me, despite what others have said about the movie in their reviews.

Let me first say that I am so glad that this movie was rated PG-13.  As Harry Potter readers know, this fourth book is more intense than the others.  To try to cut things out to make it a PG movie would have been cheating readers/viewers out of the whole tone of the book and the seriousness of the events that take place. Thus, there is a fair amount of blood, truly menacing Deatheaters, and Voldemort’s rebirth scene which keeps you on the edge of your seat–and I wouldn’t want it any other way.

Speaking of cutting things out, everyone knew from the beginning that there were lots of things that just wouldn’t fit if the movie was going to be under, say, five hours long.  I think some excellent choices were made. For example, although I would have loved to have seen some games played at the Quidditch World Cup (the stadium itself was breathtaking), this sequence was quite short because it really had only two jobs to do: 1) establish what a portkey was and how it worked and 2) show the Deatheaters wreaking havoc. A number of subplots were eliminated altogether or given a brief brush-by, but I didn’t think anything crucial was left out (unlike The Prisoner of Azkaban).

Another strength of the film is that it showed Harry, Ron, Hermione, et al. acting like teenagers. The “fights” between Harry & Ron and Hermione & Ron were quite believable. The way the ball (dance) sent everyone in a panic about whom to ask and how and when and a million other things also rang very true. Although I have read all of the books as an adult, I am glad that the movies have been “growing up” along with the readers.

This may be my favorite of the four films, and I am tempted now to read all 752 pages again so that I can catch all the little things that I don’t remember or weren’t shown in the movie. I give it five stars.

Those are just a few thoughts of mine about the movie. Now, what do you think?????

Mission: Accomplished

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