Book:

Movie:

Director: David Fincher
Screenplay: Eric Roth
Starring: Brad Pitt, Kate Blanchett
Release: 12/25/2008
Rating: PG-13

If someone had told you about an amazing autobiography he read about a man-child who was born old and died an infant, then the next day another person were to recount a wonderfully strange documentary film about an un-aging man named Benjamin Button, you would be hearing two starkly different tales. These men share a name, yes, but with different families, upbringings, home towns, personalities, adventures, romances, and growing up in different time periods, it’s hard to say that there is only one curious case of a Button.

In Fitzgerald’s original short story, Benjamin Button was born in 1860 Baltimore, Maryland. His mother was never known to the reader-my guess is that she did not survive the birth, as Benjamin entered the world as a 5’8” man-child. Ben’s father, Roger, was infuriated with what he found at the hospital, as what resembled a 70-year-old man with a long wispy beard was in the nursery speaking to him and the nurse. Roger wanted little to do with anything that would tarnish his social status, and a freak-of-nature newborn became an eyesore to his otherwise pristine reputation.

To compound Roger’s problems, the family doctor quit after delivering Ben; the hospital refused to keep him longer than a day under their care; and his father, Roger, was forced to take him back to the Button estate. But Roger took him in and raised him as a Button-though Ben was force-fed an infant’s upbringing-and he had no taste for warm milk, baby rattles, or games with other boys. He did, however, enjoy cigars, flipping through encyclopedias, and hanging out with Grandpa Button. All-in-all, Roger was a far more loving father than his doppelganger, Thomas Button.

We find Fincher’s version of Ben born in 1918 at the Buttons’ New Orleans duplex. Ben’s father Thomas steals him away in a crazed attempt to abandon the newborn. After attempting to throw the wrinkly, pint-sized infant into the Mississippi River, Thomas leaves Ben at the steps of a last-stop home for the elderly. Thomas spent the years bouncing between the whiskey bottles and brothelsHere, a woman named Queenie finds the hideously aged baby in blankets and takes him in. Though he had a youth’s curiosity, he didn’t think himself any different from the real 70-year-old residents. He is seen playing with kids visiting their grandparents at the home, adventuring in New Orleans, and playing with army soldiers.

The Buttons’ family tree, according to Fitzgerald, shows Roger Button as the successor to a wholesale hardware company, while Thomas Button manufactured and sold buttons. Go figure. Both had their share of success, but Roger shared success with Ben, who became increasingly acceptable to Roger as he progressively (or regressively, I should say) un-aged. Thomas, however, found success due to manufacturing demands from WWI, and only cared to pass the business to Ben as his life was passing by. Ben Button via the short story has a son named Roscoe. He takes over the wholesale company, and becomes increasingly irritated by his adolescent father winding back to a chubby-cheeked baby. Ben via Fincher’s movie has a daughter named Caroline and a lover named Daisy.

Both Benjamin Buttons became adventuring individuals. Fitzgerald’s wished to study at Yale, like his father before him. He was rejected and scoffed as he looked like a 50-year-old when he enrolled. He enlisted in the military and fought in the Spanish-American War. Ben, in the movie, worked on a ship when he began adventuring from his home. The ship was recruited by the navy for WWII and he saw some action off the shores of Japan. It becomes clear that Fitzgerald’s Benjamin is a man driven by vitality and adventure, while Benjamin in the movie seems to be more of a drifter. But, Fincher’s Benjamin always felt the call of home. This in large part was for his true love, Daisy.

In the movie Ben met Daisy when he was a hobbling, bald man-child. Daisy was no more then 10-years-old, but she saw a spark in the eyes of Benjamin, and they played much like normal kids do. Throughout out the movie they come in and out of each others’ lives. The two characters falls in love, but at different times. It creates wonderful tension. The short story, though, is a much dryer affair. Ben meets Hildegarde at a party. They dance in a formal arrangement. She loves him for his aged look and tranquility, though she was a young and beautiful woman. They age and cross each other as Ben groes young and she loses her vitality. They grow to dislike each other and Hildegarde moves to Italy (an unexplained event).

Narration is also a heavy point of divergence in the movie. We never know who the narrator is in the short story. Whenever there is a third-person narrator it is always an interesting discussion to have about who you think the narrator is, but Fincher leaves very little room for interpretation in the movie as he selected Benjamin’s daughter Caroline to read his journal back to his dying lover Daisy. Starting at the end is very fitting for Benjamin’s life, so having his daughter read the journal is perfect. It also give the story a beating heart because we watch how a passive individual grows attached to the story, then finds out how it impacts her own life-much like how the story interacts with the audience in the theatre.

To expand on the idea of unexplained events in Fitzgerald’s story, most occurrences in seem more like bullet points rather than momentous, life-shaping experiences. It’s like reading a slide show of somebody’s life in reverse. Fitzgerald flat-out states, several times, in essence that he is going to skip over some parts of Ben’s life. It is almost as if Fitzgerald rested on the laurels of conceiving this original concept, but did not explore its possibilities.

The movie does a far greater job of making Ben a full-blooded human being burdened with all the problems and anxieties unique to each individual. Fincher’s departures, and wholly creating a new Benjamin Button may be cruel to the Benjamin in Fitzgerald’s story, but it works, which is the most important part. Also, ending the movie on a Hurricane Katrina/Ninth Ward homage is a nice touch-you can thank Mr. Pitt for that, I’m sure.

The Book
Author: Stephenie Meyer
© 2005
Published by Little, Brown and Company

The Movie
Directed by: Catherine Hardwicke
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson
Released: November 21, 2008
Rated: PG-13

Twilight, the biggest book phenomenon among young adults since Harry Potter introduces Bella Swan, an incredibly average teenage girl, and Edward Cullen, her incredibly unusual love interest. Bella leaves sunny Phoenix for cloud-soaked Forks, Washington to live with her father (who happens to be the police chief of the 3000 person town). Clumsy Bella charms all the young men in Forks, with the exception of our cold-blooded hero, Edward. He seems to be repulsed by the very scent of her. Through the course of a few hundred pages (or a couple of hours) we learn that Edward isn’t truly repulsed by Bella, but rather is inhumanly attracted to her scent; specifically the smell of her blood. Edward, along with his super-humanly beautiful family are a coven of vampires who also routinely make their home in Forks.

Twilight pairs traditional teenage angst (Will Jessica ever get the nerve to ask Mike to the Sadie Hawkins dance? Should Bella re-use the paper about Pride and Prejudice that she wrote in Phoenix for an assignment in Forks?), with a retelling of Romeo and Juliet‘s lovers who can never be together. It also incorporates a healthy dose of history, chase, and suspense. By the end, you’ve grown to hope for Bella and Edward, and can hardly wait to pick up the next book in the series.

Spending just over 2 hours (122 minute run time) alone in the dark with a family of vampires sounds like it might be a bit of a scary idea. But when the vampires are the Cullen family as highlighted in Twilight, rather than a sense of fear, you come out with a sense of hope for a love that lives forever.

Characters

Alright, I’ll give it to you that there’s something worthwhile about picking unknowns to play roles in films like this. Afterall, no one knew who Daniel Radcliffe or Emma Watson was before the Harry Potter movies. But when you’re creating a teenage love story about an impossibly beautiful vampire (he glitters in sunlight, for goodness sake), you should probably pick the most attractive young man around. And as much hype as there is for Rob Pattinson, I’d rather stay away from his drug-dazed look, and not just because he’s a vampire. The rest of his family lacks the striking beauty that Meyer describes as well. The one exception may be Carlisle Cullen, the father of the unlikely brood.  The rest of the characters are well-casted; while they may not match the descriptions in the book, they’re believable and likable.

History

While the film adaptation of Twilight hits the highlights, cramming close to 500 pages of story into a 2 hour movie means that a few things have to get cut out. Unfortunately, in the film we lose all of the history of the Cullen family. You no longer learn how Carlisle built his vampire family, how Edward came to be the way that he is, or what they eat in comparison to the other vampires.  This extended dialog helps build the foundation of the story that helps the overall series move forward. If you’re only in it for the one movie, you won’t ever miss it.

Overall, the film of Twilight is a passable version of the story, but if you’d like to love the characters even more, then dive into the book.

The Book
Author: Nicholas Sparks
© 1996
Published by Grand Central Publishing

The Movie
Directed by: Nick Cassavetes
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, Gena Rowlands
Released: June 25, 2004
Rated: PG-13

The Notebook has been highlighted as one of the best love stories of our time, and it well could be. Of course, this book doesn’t tell the story well. In, what appears to be characteristic Sparks style, we meet Noah 49 years after the story takes place. He’s now an old man, living in an assisted care facility. He spends his days reading the notebook in which the story of he and his wife Allie is written. The love story is that notebook, when Allie and Noah are reunited, 14 years after their summer of teenage love. In just a few days, their love is rebuilt, and they spend the next 49 years building a life. Noah reads to Allie to help her remember their life, as she sinks into the depths of Alzheimer’s.

The primary story in The Notebook takes only a few days, but the love that Noah and Allie share endures for more than 60 years. There is little action, little drama, and truthfully, little confrontation in the book. Sparks may draw you in with the premise, but he again leaves you hanging for the beautiful phrasing and imagery which you hope to find in the greatest love story of the decade.

Young Love

If you’re looking for a story of young love, then open your DVD player and insert The Notebook. While the book glances over the first meetings Allie and Noah, and the time that Noah spent trying to win Allie over, the movie truly starts here. They experience a summer of adventure and laughter the likes of which most of us dream about. The end of the summer brings the inevitable separation, which is only intensified when Allie’s mother hides from her Noah’s many letters. They go their separate ways for many years, reunited just weeks before Allie’s wedding as she goes to visit him in the same small town in which they spent their summer of love. From here, the novel and movie timelines correspond well, as Noah and Allie spend a few days getting to know each other, and falling in love again.

A Lifetime of Love

Noah and Allie don’t grow old before your eyes. Rather, we learn that the story that we’re quickly becoming engrossed in is actually the story that an old man is reading to an old woman. That man is Noah, and the woman is Allie, the love of his life. As she suffers through Alzheimer’s, he reads her their story every day, the way that she wrote it, in the hopes that it will help her remember him by dinner time. They’ve lived a full life together, including having children and grandchildren. All of these are auxiliary to the story of how they found each other, twice.

Quotes

Perhaps one of the greatest features of the film version are the memorable quotes.

Young Noah: It’s not about following your heart and it’s not about keeping your promises. It’s about security.

Young Allie: What’s that supposed to mean?

Young Noah: [yelling] Money. He’s got a lot of money!

Young Allie: You smug bastard. I hate you for saying that.

Young Noah: You’re bored Allie. You’re bored and you know it. You wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t something missing.

Young Allie: You arrogant son of a bitch.

Young Noah: Would you just stay with me?

Young Allie: Stay with you? What for? Look at us, we’re already fightin’

Young Noah: Well that’s what we do, we fight… You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I’m not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you’re back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing.

Young Allie: So what?

Young Noah: So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really hard. We’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me? 30 years from now, 40 years from now? What’s it look like? If it’s with him, go. Go! I lost you once, I think I can do it again. If I thought that’s what you really wanted. But don’t you take the easy way out.

Young Allie: What easy way? There is no easy way, no matter what I do, somebody gets hurt.

Young Noah: Would you stop thinking about what everyone wants? Stop thinking about what I want, what he wants, what your parents want. What do YOU want? What do you WANT?

Young Allie: It’s not that simple.

Young Noah: What… do… you… want? Whaddaya want?

Young Allie: I have to go now.

Lon: Allie, it’s normal not to forget your first love but I want you for myself. I don’t want to convince my fiancée that she should be with me.

Young Allie: You don’t have to. I already know I should be with you.

Movie
Directed by: George C. Wolfe
Starring: Diane Lane, Richard Gere
Released: September 26, 2008
Rated: PG-13

Nights in Rodanthe is written to be one of the “second chance at love” stories that middle-aged women across the world may dream about, especially with Richard Gere as the romantic hero. While the movie vaguely misses the mark, the book doesn’t even come close.

Sparks uses a formulaic approach to the love story; love coming into the lives of 2 people unexpectedly, distance forces the two lovers apart, and finally, the enduring quality of love. The simple story can appeal to those who are looking for a quick read; or who want to truly engage their imagination to give depth to the characters.

Timing

Our novel opens 14 years after the story takes place, when Adrienne, our heroine is 60. She decides to tell the story of the love that spanned a few days in Rodanthe in an attempt to help her grieving daughter. The actual book only takes a day (When Adrienne tells the story), but the story itself could be said to span a full the full 14 years.

In sharp contrast, the movie only focuses on the immediate time around Adrienne and Paul’s meeting in Rodanthe, and Paul’s trip to Ecuador. While Adrienne still shares her story with her daughter, it’s days or weeks after Paul’s death, not a decade later.

Character Development

Where the book leaves off (character depth, emotional involvement), the movie picks up. There are a few differences between the story that Sparks has committed to paper, and the film that George C. Wolfe directed, but overall the core love story between Adrienne and Paul remains virtually unchanged. They meet. They dine (and wine, and whine). They love. Life separates them.

Much more time in the movie is dedicated to the time that Paul (Richard Gere) spends in Ecuador with his son, and the letters that he wrote back to Adrienne. This back-and-forth conversation via letters helps give additional depth to their relationship and emotional commitment to each other.

The Storm

The storm is a central theme in both the book and the movie, as it forces Adrienne and Paul together, alone at the bed and breakfast. The film uses the brewing storm to create a higher sense of drama, including Paul saving Adrienne from a falling china cabinet. Of course, she falls directly into his arms.

In general, the storm parallels the emotions brewing in the hearts of Adrienne and Paul. While the book provides them with an instant rapport, the relationship between them is more turbulent in the movie. Adrienne is still debating her impending divorce; Paul isn’t sure he’s ready to open up to someone, but he’s sure that he’ doesn’t want to be alone. They fumble toward each other while the storm outside rages.

Overall, I can’t vote in favor of either this book or this film. If forced to choose one, I suppose the movie would be the lesser of the two evils. At least on-screen I felt something when we lost Paul; in the book it was just a relief knowing that the bland pages were almost over.

Movie:
Director: Mike Newell
Starring: Benjamin Bratt, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Javier Bardem
Release: November 2007

I expected Love in the Time of Cholera to be a beautiful love story – perhaps one that would join the line of Gone with the Wind. In some ways, it is like Gone with the Wind, in the sense that the traditional love story is reinvented in a completely new way. In just the back panel of the book, you discover that while Florentino loves Florentina for over 50 years, that doesn’t slow his prowess – he has 622 affairs during that time. Now, how would one portray that on-screen without it quickly becoming an x-rated film?

Love

Oh, how many of us have felt the infatuation of young love – the kind that songs are written about. One song in particular comes to mind for young Florentino (Javier Bardem) and Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno).

“… ‘Cause when you’re fifteen and someone tells you they love you,
You’re gonna believe it…”  – Taylor Swift, Fifteen

Such is love for young Florentino and Fermina. Their early relationship is developed through a series of letters (enhanced, on-screen by stolen glances in church and at carnival).  He loves her from the moment he sees her, and doesn’t hesitate to tell her in every possible way. When her father, perfectly portrayed by John Leguizamo, discovers that she’s agreed to marry Florentino, he wisks her away to the countryside.

Love is different when you’re 18, especially in a time when an 18 year old woman is the head of the household. When Fermina sees Florentino again in the market after a 2-year hiatus, she instantly realizes that Florentino is not the man that she had imagined. She immediately breaks off their engagement. Florentino falls into most unmasculine displays despair, and Fermina moves on. She eventually agrees to marry Dr. Juvenal Urbino, and Florentino starts his 622 affairs.

Overwhelming Description

Marquez relied very little in dialogue through the book – rather telling the story through the thoughts and statements of fact. I admittedly was worried about how the movie would turn out, as so much of a film is typically told through character dialogue. Newell’s team did an outstanding job of using the description and thoughts to build missing dialogue, and use the background that was needed to build the story.

Newell also left out elements that were less important to the story – such as the way that Urbino liked the smell of his pee after eating asparagus, or that Florentino needed frequent enemas. While these elements of the novel were… interesting… they rarely added to the depth of the story, and were fine deletions from the screenplay.

The Naughty Bits

Since Newell left out the smell of asparagus pee, he needed to spice up the storyline somehow – so he enhanced the stories of Florentino’s 622 affairs. The depictions were much more graphic, bordering on x-rated, as Florentino explored physical love with a wide variety of women, in a wide variety of places and positions. He detailed them all in a journal, which was notably absent from the novel. In fact, the only reference that I can recall to the exact number of affairs he had was from the back panel of the book.

Florentino’s tastes were varied. At times, it seemed like he would sleep with any woman who presented the opportunity. He often slept with widows, as they seem to be the most free with their lives. He doesn’t limit his affairs there – he also has an affair with a married woman, leading to her untimely death at the hands of her jealous husband.

As an old man, he also sleeps with much younger women – in particular his young charge America. In the movie, she’s in college, studying to be a teacher; but in the novel, she seems much younger. Enough younger, in fact, that their affair seems to have a very Lolita quality. No matter – the age difference of 50+ years could definitely be considered a ‘naughty bit’.

Worth it?

Without ruining the end (which you know from the beginning), I’ve been asking myself the question about whether the book or the movie were worth the time I invested in the reading and watching. To be sure, there are parts of the story that I will likely never forget (Florentino’s lover who used baby pacifiers as part of the sexual act), there are more parts that I’ll never remember from both the book and the movie. I’ve still not made up my mind, so you’ll have to decide for yourself.