The Notebook

Let me preface this by saying that this is legit the first time that I have actually seen 'The Notebook'. That may be sad, it may not be. Regardless, it's true. I have heard about people talking about it since it was released in theatres in 2004. Essentially, it's about a woman's whom is retold the story of her own life from a book she wrote herself. At the end of the film, it shows her husband, Noah, flipping to the beginning of the book where she wrote "The story of our lives by Allison Hamilton Calhoun. To my love, Noah, Read this to me and I'll come back to you." The film is adapted from the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name. I have not read the book either, so this was a completely new experience for me as I was expecting a very romantic, gushy, chick-flick type film. It took me about half of the film to realize that the story was about Allie as the flashbacks are longer than the current-time scenes. The story itself is very beautiful and while the plot is mainly an old woman with dementia is being forced to remember her wonderful life, the portrayal of the characters by the cast is amazing. The younger versions of Allie and Noah, Rachel McAdams & Ryan Gosling do wonderful and completely fit in the 40s and 50s that the main part of the film takes place in. The costuming and make-up was done so beautifully, there was not even a hair out place. The film is not as chick-flick type as I had imagined, however. It had a feel of a romantic docudrama if anything. I'm not sure if this film can be cast in any kind of normal film genre, though. Maybe a romance. The nurse at the end of the film was very sweet, letting Noah go see Allie, using a ridiculous excuse to disappear for awhile. After that, the sweetest moment of the film happens, Allie remembers Noah without being read anything. Noah climbs into bed with his wife and they fall asleep, only to be found, finally together again in peaceful death. The costuming was perfect for the time periods, the character and actors were amazing. It was certainly interesting to watch. So, until next time--

The Hunger Games

This film adaption based off of the novel "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins, came as a surprise to me. Having just completed the 3-book series before I watched the first film was certainly helpful because otherwise I would have been highly confused had I only read the first book. While watching the film, the person I was with had to have some scenes explained by me as simply saying 'Book 2' or 'Book 3' because the scenes were actually from stuff that happened not in the 1st book. In the novel, there were quite a few flashbacks - in the film, the flashbacks were much less in number, but also not shot the way I expected. Beware there are spoilers of the storyline and some details as this is more a comparison of the book to the film. Then again, the entire film was shot in a way I was not expecting. The angles of shots, the use of music over silent scenes, and the overall choices by director Gary Ross were not pleasing to myself, a self-described fan of the series. Since the books are written as a narrative from Katniss Everdeen's perspective, I expected the film adaption to have a over-voice narrative done by Jennifer Lawrence (who plays Katniss Everdeen) for most of the film, during the silent parts, where instead there was music. Other things that shocked me were what they got wrong from the book in the movie. Very specifically the pin that Katniss wears of the Mockingjay. In the film, she picks it up from the Hob and gives it to her sister to wear, who then gives it back to her. If you read anything in the book, you would have easily picked this up as being false. I spent a lot of scenes of the film saying 'false', because in the film adaption, there were indeed false to what was written in the book and how it was written. That is probably the one thing that I absolutely HATE when watching film adaptions of novels I have read. Not only do I expect it to be accurate, but I also have a tendency to expect it to be how I visualized it in my mind. Some examples of this would be Rue & Thresh, the District 11 tributes - while I approve of the actors they chose, I was surprised at the same time, especially Rue. Rue is supposed to remind Katniss of her younger sister, Primrose 'Prim' Everdeen, not only in character but also in looks. Plainly put, Prim & Katniss are white while Rue is black in the film. I would say in mannerisms yes, but most definitely not in looks. The chariot costumes, I expected to be head to toe flames, slick-black with CGI over-laid. Instead, it was like a small cape of CGI flames and some weird shoulder-pad wing things and of course Katniss's hair looking like a Darth Vader helmet of braids was not expected, either. I was also a little surprised for some other character options like Cinna, Peeta & Gale (who reminded me of Jacob Black not only in the books but with the actor choice as well). Some of the speech was a little changed as well, but for some reason it bothered me more than any other book to film adaption Ive ever seen, even the Harry Potter series. Words seem to be so few in this book series that I suppose when they are actually used, I expect them to be exact. I absolutely LOVE who they chose for some characters though, but also how the Capitol people look. Imagining it or seeing it, it is hilarious and fantastic! Also, how PERFECT was Stanley Tucci as Caesar Flickerman?! Some of the worst things you can do in films were done in this first film; Katniss had hair in front of one eye almost every second of the film, the inclusion of scenes from 'Catching Fire' and 'Mockingjay' when we already know there will be film adaptions for both, and the inclusion of things that were not in any of the books at all. I did enjoy the film, but the fact that my brain can scream 'wrong', 'nope', and 'false' during so many moments of the film makes me want to hate it. Kind of like the film adaption for 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'. So, until next time--