Along with reading the books of L.M. Montgomery, another part of the month-long L.M. Montgomery challenge hosted by Carrie @ Reading To Know that I’m participating in includes watching any of the films based off her books. Last week I spent a couple of days watching the 1985 miniseries based off Anne of Green Gables. I read the book for the first time in November and immediately fell in love with this story and cast of characters, so I was pretty excited to watch the film, challenge or no.
I thought this was a really well done telling of the original story, including all of the truly memorable scenes I could remember, leaving little out in the 3 hours of run time. I liked the actors chosen and think Megan Follows in particular did a great job portraying Anne. And while I did occasionally notice a few moments of less than stellar acting (mostly that hottie, Gilbert Blythe (played by Jonathan Crombie), stumbling over a few of his lines), for some reason those moments just somehow made the whole thing seem more real to me – like they might be real people who aren’t always suave and well spoken. It definitely gave the show that same authentic and easy to relate to quality that I think the books have.
This is probably not a movie to force your husbands or boyfriends to sit through. It’s not filled to the brim with action, although watching Diana (played by Schuyler Grant) was pretty hysterical, I think this movie might be more suited to people who have read the books or would enjoy that kind of coming of age, admittedly sort of chick flick story. Watch this one with your girlfriends, your daughters, your mothers – and maybe your husband will secretly watch along while pretending to be playing a computer game or reading Slashdot articles. Stranger things have been known to happen.
I know a lot of people who have seen this miniseries but have never read the books, and probably others who read the books but never watched the show. I have now read the book and seen the first film and I have to say I am now a huge fan of both. How about you?