"You can never turn the work of Edith Wharton into a movie!!" | 2009-09-19 |
| - Reviewed By Rizzo from Denver, CO |
I knew this would happen, knowing how many books get turned into bad movies, especially the work of literary giants like Edith Wharton. If you are NOT a reader of fine literature, you may like this movie - a simple romance, like millions of other movies.
But if you have read Wharton's classic novelette, one of the finest pieces of work, you would dislike this movie immensely. Wharton was born in 1862 and died in 1937 at 75 years. She won a Pulitzer Prize in Literature for The Age of Innocence.
With a unique writing style, one that absorbs the reader into deeper thoughts and greater description, fine prose, and without rushing through the plot.
The 1993 film's cinematography was beautiful, characters were nothing memorable and the focus of the story was missing, the intense relationships, the gravity of suspense, the extent of the deeper personalities we so became used to. Liam Neeson does a decent job at playing Ethan, but we really miss what and who Zeena, Mattie and Ethan are all about. The book is not about sex or lurid romance, it is subtle. That is what needs to come across in a Wharton based movie, and Hollywood doesn't do that, and you can't expect them to. And reading the book, one can instantly recognizes "movie scenes", predicting which scenes Hollywood will use. Ethan Frome is not meant for the big screen!
If you are willing to delve into dramatic plays, try Best American Plays: 1918-1958 Supplementary Volume Complete for a captivating, engaging, play based on the book Ethan Frome. The play was first staged in 1936 and the adaption of of the book is done by a father and son team, Owen Davis and Donald Davis. This play is wonderful!!!
But, try the book Ethan Frome and see why this should never had been turned into a Hollywood movie. .....Rizzo |
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"Very Poor Rendering of My All-Time Favorite Book" | 2008-11-12 |
| - Reviewed By blue eyes |
CAUTION: SPOILER ALERT!
Ethan Frome is the most poignant, beautiful, tragic story I've ever read, and is by far Edith Wharton's best work. Yet somehow, despite the fact that Liam Neeson plays the title role and does very well, the filmmakers managed to do a poor job conveying this story.
The decision to replace the book's level-headed, sympathetic introducer of the story with a whiny-voiced, invasive preacher was ridiculous. Patricia Arquette's rendition of Mattie Silver(my favorite female character of all time!!) was completely wrong, although she did have a few good moments. Arquette didn't have the dark hair or the luminous beauty of Mattie, and her acting did almost no justice whatsoever to Mattie's simple but profound character. The nervous laughing in particular drove me crazy. Mattie needs to be portrayed by someone who can fully express her personality -- so warm, intelligent, and vibrant against the wintry cold setting and Ethan's equally frigid wife, Zeena. Ethan's character also needed further exploring through better dialogue and visual story-telling.
Joan Allen was pitch perfect as Zeena, Ethan's abominable hypochondriac wife. If they ever do another film version of this story, I'd want to bring her back. But again, they needed to play up Zeena's manipulative, vindictive, withholding, and silently watchful side even more than they did in order to increase the tension in the household as Ethan and Mattie become increasingly inseparable.
There are two things that I take the most serious issue with in this film. One -- Mattie and Ethan do NOT have sex in the book. At any time. They kiss, in one of the most sensual moments in all of literature, but they do not have sex, Wharton makes it quite clear. Which is why their story is so pure, so poignant, so frustrated, and so desperate. And in this film, they do sleep together, twice. One of those scenes is an appropriately sensual, tense moment, and the other is very sad and desperate but also very... weird and somewhat disturbing. But my point is that changing a crucial factor of the plotline and character development works against the film -- if they were looking for greater intensity, they actually undercut it. Ethan and Mattie sleeping together, especially with so little on-screen development of their romance, makes their love story look more like a lust story and takes away the gorgeous tension of the book.
Which brings me to number two -- the build-up to the lovers' attempted suicide is the most emotionally intense literature I have ever read. The film needs to make it clear that Ethan and Mattie are blocked at every turn by grinding poverty and social boundaries from being able to escape together. A screen adaptation of this book needs to make their love so palpable, so fathomless, that the audience completely understands that they have no alternative BUT suicide if they want to stay together. And then that scene needs to be tremendous.
There were other things that needed to be made perfectly clear, as well -- especially the state of Mattie's mental and physical condition at the end of the story. This film version doesn't make it clear that she is made a quadraplegic with a completely changed personality through the head trauma she experienced in the accident. That is the most horrible sorrow of the entire book, and it needs to be emphasized in order to show the terribleness of Ethan's suffering.
Finally, this book reads like the most gorgeous cinema you could ever encounter -- and a film version ABSOLUTELY MUST be visually stunning, drawn-out, and poignant with the most sumptuous direction, cast, cinematography, color palette, and music that can be found. And this version just didn't cut it, I'm very sorry to say. |
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"Ethan Frome" | 2008-04-07 |
| - Reviewed By Ruth D. B. Brooks from Virginia Beach, VA USA |
| Though there are differences between the book and film, this version is creative and engaging. |
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"Great movie" | 2007-09-05 |
| - Reviewed By Leann P. Dunn from Pasadena, TX |
| I never read the book, so I was very surprised by the ending. I loved the movie. I thought Liam Neeson did a great job as usual. |
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"Great movie~!" | 2006-10-01 |
| - Reviewed By An Amazon User |
I have watched this movie a couple of times and LOVE it. You really feel like you are back in time with these characters. A true love story to the end. It's one of those movies that you can't figure out right away. Love the twist at the end.
You won't waste your money here. |
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"Beautiful, Breathtaking.....Wonderful!" | 2006-09-30 |
| - Reviewed By klisa3cats |
| If you love a great period love story, then don't let any negative reviews stop you from seeing this terrific movie. The superb acting and beautiful scenery pull you right into the story, and the sexual tension between Laim Neeson and Patricia Arquette is incredibly palpable. It's the kind of movie that you can watch again and again and never get bored. One of my all-time favorites. |
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