From the Page to the Screen
Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
Bewildered. Betrayed. Upset enough to nearly throw the book across my room. This is how I felt after finishing the highly acclaimed novel Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín. What began as a masterpiece turned into an utter disappointment. Tóibín has a way with words, there’s no doubt about that, but when it comes to endings, I can’t say the same. After sharing my unfavorable reaction with a friend who had recently seen the movie without having previously read the book, we discovered that our opinions regarding the story didn’t match up; she didn’t understand the discontent I had experienced from the ending of the novel.
Out of curiosity, I immediately went out and bought the movie. After watching it, I was stunned. I didn’t have the same reaction as I did to the book because the ending of the movie adaptation was tweaked in a positive direction, and I felt the closure I longed for after finishing the book. The movie did a wonderful job preserving the storyline and emotion of the characters described so well in the book, especially the way Eilis felt after moving away from her family in Ireland to America. Saoirse Ronan was perfect for the role as Eilis Lacey, the main character, not just because she’s Irish but because she succeeded in bringing Eilis’s personality and character from page to screen. Moreover, I noticed Eilis was presented in a more likeable way in the movie than in the book, so I was okay with it. The ending of the novel is what tore me apart, which was the deciding factor for why I, in this rare case, preferred the movie over the book.
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
Before even setting eyes on a copy of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, one can tell just by the title that this novel is anything but conventional. Filled with time travel, monsters, and very peculiar children, Ransom Riggs succeeds in creating a bizarrely suspenseful, World War II centric story about outcasts and one’s appearances versus their true identity, illustrated with bone-chilling antique photos. While reading the novel, the eerie, dark tone is evident, which is why it was surprising that the film did not preserve this tone; instead, unlike the black and white cover of the book, the story on screen was presented in a very colorful and childlike way.
The thing is, the book is not meant for young children with its somewhat-frightening supernatural content. Therefore, the bright, childish way the story is presented in the movie makes it difficult to discern whether or not it is a children’s movie until a scary-looking creature pops up. In other words, the actual story derived from the book along with the childlike tone of the movie do not flow.
At the beginning, although we noticed slight differences between the book and movie here and there, the movie was quite captivating… until the action scenes began, which is where the movie officially went downhill. These battle scenes were pointless, way over the top, and not in the book. It was disappointing because the focus on these dramatic fight scenes drowned out the true value and meaning of the story.
We recommend that you read the book but not the movie. The book was gripping, bizarre (in a good way), but too bizarre to translate onto the screen even for the king of the weird and otherworldly Tim Burton.
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
Though author M.L. Stedman’s debut novel The Light Between Oceans is written in the third person, the film adaptation of the book seems to be filmed as a first person narrative. It gives the audience a very realistic, intimate window into the lives of two people, so intimate in fact that sometimes it feels like you’re not supposed to be there.
Newly weds, Alicia Vikander and Michael Fassbender, though much older than their respective roles in the book, are Isabel and Tom Sherbourne. Vikander plays her part with such strong conviction, ferocity, and maternal affection that even though we know that what Isabel is doing is wrong, a part of us can’t help but sympathize with her as in the book, so much so that many of Vikander’s scenes brought tears to my eyes. And Fassbender does a great job at bringing to life the internal struggle Tom comes to face.
Most importantly though, as a couple, they had natural chemistry and could play off each other so well, which was of utmost importance because as a result of the isolation of the island, the majority of the story is centered around their relationship, a relationship that becomes difficult maintain when a moral dilemma literally washes to shore.
With sweeping shots of New Zealand, what the movie executed beautifully was making sure that like in the novel the island where the Sherbourne’s maintain the lighthouse was as major a character as any of the other ones. For example, often times the natural wind on the island intertwined and even overpowered the dialogue in the movie, as if it was trying to join in on the conversation, which helped maintain a consistent sense of place throughout the film.
Overall, yes, it is a slow movie and like the sea the separates the Sherbournes from the mainland, some scenes seem to stretch on for a very long time, but it is a very faithful adaptation of Stedman’s novel and those long scenes only heighten the underlying tension that results when the lines between what is right and what is wrong become blurred.
