Book & Movie Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

I read The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, about two years ago and aboslutely loved it! I would even go as far as to say that it's one of my all-time favorite love stories. So you can imagine my excitement when a) I heard they were turning this wonderful book into a movie and b) the movie would feature Rachel McAdams, whom I've loved ever since The Notebook. If you ask me it was a formula for success, which is I'm distraught to report that you're better of saving your $10 and waiting for this one to come out on DVD.

In all fairness, this is a difficult story to tell because, as you can imagine, the element of time travel requires a lot of jumping around in the story line. One minute you're in the present, the next you're in the future and a moment later you're in the past. The book pulled this off magnificently but the movie had a tougher time of it. Unfortunately, there were a few parts where I had to tell my husband what was going on because it wasn't overtly obvious that Eric Bana's character, Henry, had time traveled.

On the plus side, the movie was wrought with emotion and did manage to reduce me to tears a few times. Although, considering that I get weepy at those damn SPCA/End Animal Cruelty commercials with Sarah MacLaughlin's Angel playing in the background, I'm not sure that's really saying much :)

Movie Review: Twilight

About three things I am absolutely positive: First, I love Twilight. Second, I love Twilight. Third, I love Twilight.

Okay, I admit, when the movie, Twilight, came out a few months ago, I thought nothing sounded dumber than a vampire love story. With the exception of Harry Potter, I've never been into fantasy movies or books and I didn't understand why everyone was making such a fuss. Until the other day...

I cringed when Dave came home from Blockbuster with Twilight in hand. I love him dearly but I couldn't help but think he had wasted one of our perfectly good trades from Blockbuster.com on a teeny bopper flick. I should've known it was coming, I suppose. After all, he had just finished reading the first book in the series and he had mentioned how good it was.
The movie sat on top of our TV, untouched, for a few days. But then on Wednesday he asked the inevitable question that I'd been avoiding all week: Do you want to watch Twilight tonight? I dreaded the blood, guts and fanged men in capes that surely made up this silly movie, but how do you say no to the best husband in the world who willingly sat through 27 Dresses, P.S. I Love You and a myriad of other chic flicks that I've subjected him to?

And so we watched Twilight.

And then we watched it again the next night. And again last night. That's right, 3 viewings in 5 days. And now I won't let him return it to Blockbuster until we buy a copy of our own because I'm absolutely addicted to it.

I just started reading the book and I'm hooked on that too. Dave is on the second book, New Moon, which he said is good but not as good as Twilight. I hear the third and fourth books are excellent. Needless to say, I'm counting down the days until the movie version of New Moon opens on November 20th.

Yep, I'm joining the masses...I LOVE Twilight. If you haven't checked it out yet, give this one a chance.

Book & Movie Review: My Sister's Keeper

So many people I know LOVE Jodi Picoult, but until a couple weeks ago I'd never read her work. So I was thrilled when I had the chance to read My Sister's Keeper right before the release of the movie. Normally, when I read a book and then watch the movie I tend to be disappointed. But when I heard that Nick Cassavetes, director of The Notebook, had directed the movie version of Picoult's novel, I was hopeful. The verdict? The movie was GREAT! It's one I'd consider buying and watching again and again. The only downfall was that some crazy person in the theater kept blowing her nose during the tear-jerking scenes...oh wait, that was me. (P.S. bring tissues!)

The movie definitely differed a lot from the book (don't worry, no spoilers) - certain characters were changed, a couple were left out, a few sub-plots never made it to the big screen and the overall story works itself out differently in the movie than in the novel. After the movie, Dave asked me which version I liked better and my honest answer was that I really loved and appreciated both. One thing that I applaud Cassavetes for was that he used a good amount of the author's voice and dialogue in the movie (he did this with The Notebook too). Picoult is definitely present in the movie, which made me like it all that much better.

Overall recommendation: Definitely worth the $10 to see it in the theater.

Book & Movie Review: Confessions of a Shopaholic

Every once in awhile a movie comes along that is so bad that my husband actually bans my movie choices. My worst offense of all time was when I dragged him to see Solaris (I've never lived that down). Unfortunately last night's rental of Confessions of a Shopaholic came in a close second.

I read Sophie Kinsella's novel about 7 years ago and LOVED it, but the movie? Disappointing, to say the least. My biggest complaint is that they changed the story line way too much. For example, the novel is set in London and the protagonist, Becky Bloomwood, is a cheeky Brit with a hilarious rationale for her spending behavior. The movie, however, was set in NYC and Becky came off more clumsy and shallow than her lovable literary counterpart.

The movie also fell short when it came to the relationships between Becky and the other characters. For example, her conflict with Alicia Bitch Longlegs was underwhelming and I didn't really buy the attraction between her Luke Brandon.

Bottom line: save the rental fee, read the book.

Book & Movie Review: Revolutionary Road

I recently read Richard Yates' Revolutionary Road and then rented the movie. The verdict...depressing, on both counts. In fact, a gray cloud literally hung over my head for a week after reading the book. And when I finally had the courage to rent the movie, the woman at Blockbuster tried to convince me not to because of how depressing it was. While I appreciated her advice, I completely ignored it and rented it anyway, determined to see for myself.

Not to sound cliche or like some sort of literary critic, but the movie wasn't nearly as good as the book. It wasn't nearly as depressing either, which was a major failure on its part because it's supposed to be depressing. I was also disappointed by the lack of on-screen chemistry from Leo and Kate. I mean, I bawled my eyes out at Titanic, but they didn't manage to pry even an ounce of emotion out of me in Revolutionary Road. Needless to say, when I returned the movie to Blockbuster, I warned the woman not to read the book. If she thought the movie was depressing...the book might actually push her over the edge.

I don't want you to get the wrong idea; the book was actually quite good. Richard Yates did a brilliant job capturing the characters' conflicts and his descriptions were so vivid you could practically taste each scene. If you're considering the book or the movie...go for the book, you'll get so much more out of it.