Anne, la maison aux pignons verts

𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑜 𝑒𝑥𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑒 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑔𝑜𝑡 𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙𝑙𝑦 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑙𝑜𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑒 𝑏𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑠 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑒. 𝐼 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛'𝑡 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑣𝑖𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑜 𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑦𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑑

Lucy Maud Montgomery's 'Anne of Green Gables' is a literary classic, and, while not every adaptation of 'Anne of Green Gables' has been watched by me, count me in as somebody who also adores the 1985 version and who considers it vastly superior to this latest effort. Every adaptation deserves to stand on its own two feet, regardless of how well or badly it fares to the source material or how it stacks up with other adaptations. As has been said, this 'Anne of Green Gables' underwhelms as an adaptation, the details are there but not the spirit with the film seeming to forget what it is about the story that makes it resonate so much. On its own terms, it also is just as problematic. To me it isn't as awful as has been said, but the disappointment is understandable. There are good things with 'Anne of Green Gables' (2016). On the most part it looks very attractive, with beautiful and quaint scenery, evocative costume and production design and photography that gives off a real wholesome charm that reminds one fondly of cosy period dramas or something like 'The Waltons'. The music is lilting and suitably whimsical as well as with the right understated touch when needed. 'Anne of Green Gables (2016)' casting has been criticised and again understandably, with reservations for a few also shared. Ella Ballentine, starting with the positives of the casting, is a spirited and charming Anne, even if Megan Follows embodied the role much more Ballentine doesn't fare badly at all on her own and her spirit and charm lifts the film from mediocrity at best to something a little better. Julia Lalonde is perfectly cast as Diana, and Stefani Kimber's Josie is a bright spot too. However, despite most of the details being there the spirit (apart from a cosy wholesomeness) isn't there, suffering from the pacing and dialogue delivery especially being too rushed and characters and essential plot points being either underutilised or re-written in polar opposite fashion. Gilbert is both downplayed and underused, with a too young Drew Haytaoglu being pretty bland in the role, and while it was appreciated that the relationship between Anne and Marilla had more prominence when it is often the romance it would have been appreciated more if it didn't feel like it dominated too much and that the character of Marilla had a better mix of the hard and soft rather than just being cranky and also less severe to usual. This too would have given Sara Botsford more room to stretch herself and her talents, what should have been a pretty juicy role limited her too much and never allows her to disappear into it. Martin Sheen overplays in the role of Matthew, that is also written too extrovertedly. As much as this sounds like a purist, one of the book's biggest pleasures (of which there are too many to list) is how momentous the reader feels when Anne wins Marilla and Matthew over, when you have the roles written in polar-opposite fashion, Marilla needing more severity and more of a mix of hard and soft and Matthew needing to be more introverted and gentle, like here this momentous feeling is lost. The editing also feels very jerky too, while the script is rushed and often stilted in delivery and has a anachronistically modern feel that distracts too much from the period (as well as a few gratuitous darker elements that was best omitted). The ending has too much of a too sudden and unfinished feel to it. Overall, looks attractive, has a nice score and with a few casting bright spots but feels both too bland and rushed. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Why do they even bother to remake successful movies? As much as I like Martin Sheen, he does not do this role near the justice it deserves, likewise the other major cast members. Check out the 1985 version with Farnsworth, Follows, Dewhurst for a much superior film adaptation. If Hollywood writers can't come up with new plot ideas, why don't they do something else? If you can't write a good script, you're not a good scriptwriter. Isn't it obvious?

I have read the books and have seen all adaptations of Anne of green gables. This new movie doesn't even come close to what was done in 1985 with Megan follows. I had to force myself to watch the entire movie. The casting and the direction was very poor. Anne in this movie did not flow effortlessly in her acting like Megan follows did and I found it particularly annoying how Matthew was not true to his character. The dialogues felt rushed and not natural. Many scenes were not given enough attention to detail and proper care. I had to re=watch the 1985 version to get over the disappointment. Please do not do a remake if you can't do a better version of the previous.