Passions of the Soul

Kit

We went to see the movie Kit Kittredge, on Tuesday, and really appreciated it.  I'm not sure enjoyed would be the best overall word, because it was set during the Great Depression.  That is not to say we didn't enjoy it, because parts of it were cute, but as the movie progressed, it got darker.  And I won't comment on the ending, so as not to spoil it for anyone who hasn't yet seen it.

The filmmakers did a great job of capturing that time, a time when heads of households--notably husbands and fathers--left home for whatever "promised land" they'd heard about where they thought they could get jobs.  The film captured the losses, the blows to the pride of people who had been able to take care of themselves and their families before they lost their jobs, their cars and their homes. 

Scenes in the hobo camp near the town where the main families lived depicted people who looked as though they had been without homes for many years, and others who were hanging on to what shreds of dignity they could.  Some seemed to have lost any sense of who they had been or who they still were; others recognized their present state, but knew they had been "respectable" people, once.  I think those were the ones who still held out hope, refusing to let their circumstances beat them.  But it wasn't easy for them; hoboes were the scapegoats for much of what went wrong.  A string of "hobo crimes" in several states didn't help their lot.

I am not making a sociopolitical statement, here.  As I watched, I realized that we are living in a time when way too many of us could find ourselves losing all that we thought we could claim as our own.  With a major bank failure just yesterday, panic selling of stocks and withdrawals of monies from the banks that are still open could plunge us, if not into another depression, a whole lot closer to it than anyone wants to be.

I recommend the movie wholeheartedly, but I don't especially think it's a kids' movie.  Maybe.  Children would most likely see it at a whole different level than we did, and depending on their ages, it could provide for some discussion of what's most important in our lives.  But I highly recommend it for teens and adults.

Prince Caspian

If you have never read C.S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, then what Disney has done with Prince Caspian is unlikely to bother you.  You might even enjoy it, although the film version is a truly poor substitute for the book.

Ever since we saw Disney's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I have looked forward to the next film in the series.  My husband Bruce, who had read the reviews, was not really interested in going to see this one.  But I, who had not read the reviews, couldn't wait, so I finally prevailed on him to take me yesterday.  We left, roughly half-way through.

To say the movie is based on the book by C.S. Lewis is a little misleading; I would say it is very loosely based on the book.  That means that, yes, the characters are there, and yes, they did actually weave little bits of Lewis's story into their own.  The scriptwriters left out so much, which is to be expected, given that you can't really do great justice to a book, in a film version.  But they've also rewritten so much and added so much action and dialogue that never appeared in the book.  And their attempts at clever, witty dialogue, lacking Lewis's brilliant story-telling, were downright pathetic.  Some warranted an insipid half-smile and nothing more; most evoked no response.  Hollywood's attempt at putting this story on film is as uninspired as it gets.

If you enjoy a good story, read the book.  If you want a half-baked attempt at putting a classic book on film, go see the movie.  But Hollywood will have to do better with future efforts in this series, if they want our money.

UPDATE 6/22/08:  As we were vacationing, last week, I thought back several times to this movie.  I think I figured out why I believe Ben Barnes was miscast in the title role.

I keep replaying the scene leading up to the Pevensies' first encounter with Prince Caspian.  They don't yet know who he is, nor does he know who they are.  He and his small band of faithful (or not so faithful) followers are taking on some of the Telmarines.  Both in that encounter and in the initial encounter between him and the Pevensies, he displays an arrogance and cockiness that do not befit this prince, and I don't remember picking up such attitudes in my numerous readings of Lewis's great story.  Barnes' face is well-suited to the sneering expression that continues to dance before my mental eyes, but not to the "I may be a prince, but I'm just a kid" portrait of Caspian written by Lewis.  Such scenes were conceived, written and directed, it seems, by people who either had never read Lewis's story, or are insensitive to the heart and spirit of it.