One of the coolest, unexpected perks of my job is that we have partnerships with many local businesses and non-profit organizations, one of which is The Little Theatre – a five-screen independently owned movie house in downtown Rochester (near the Eastman School of Music) that pours real melted butter onto their popcorn, serves fine teas and treats from local bakeries and candymakers at the concessions stand, hosts local musicians in their cafe, and shows excellent independent, foreign, artsy, and cultural films – in addition to classic movies, really good mainstream movies, and filmed plays, ballets, operas, dances, and documentaries. And because of my company’s partnership with The Little, we receive free movie tickets there on Monday-Thursday nights. And it’s really, really awesome. Full disclosure: Ted and I haven’t paid to see a movie in theatres in months. And we probably see 3-6 movies a month. We live on a strict budget, so we feel lucky and thankful that we can still go to the movies when something we want to see is released. Otherwise, we’d never go because $8 movie tickets is a luxury we (and, unfortunately, so many others) simply cannot afford. Needless to say, we’re grateful fans of The Little and this ‘little’ arrangement.
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Most recently with The Book Thieves, the coed young professionals book club I am a part of through Writers & Books (another awesome local non-profit Geva occasionally partners with and where many of my non-Geva friends work), we read and discussed The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. So, on Tuesday night a group of about ten of us went to go see the movie, which was released earlier this month, at The Little. Overall, we liked it.
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It’s always a bit scary to see the movie-version of a book you really liked. Awful thoughts of how ludicrously they’re going to screw up the plot or misrepresent the mood or the characters (pleeeeeease, for the love of all that is holy, don’t mess up the characters!) or the intention of the book nag at you, and you really don’t want that to happen because it’s a good book. But on the other hands, it’s a good book and it would be so moving to see those characters and that story brought to life – it could be wonderful! We were pretty excited to see The Book Thief, assuming they would do an acceptable, if not good, job (which they did), but we came to the consensus that we’d be much more nervous if (but really, when) a movie version of The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern was (is) produced. So much of that book relies on imagery and imagination to create the beauty and magic of the circus that I would be a ball of nerves for days about how they might potentially ruin all the wonderful pictures this book painted in my mind. Or it very well could be stunning. It’s a toss-up. I really want it to be made into a movie, but I also don’t, you know? I feel like movies can mar the wonderful, beautiful, creative images of your imagination and that books offer so much more detail and a much deeper personal connection to characters, mostly because you create them, but movies can also open up your mind to a location or character or take on the story you hadn’t considered before – and make it even more real. I’m torn! Both The Giver and The Fault in our Stars are being made into movies in 2014, and I plan to see them both, all fears aside.
Here are three lists of books being made into movies, in case you’re curious about what’s coming your way: 1, 2, 3
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Anyway, I wasn’t disappointed by The Book Thief movie. Despite the fact that, if you’ve read the book, you’ll notice there were some pretty significant plot omissions, a small handful of moments added, and several things changed or the order of their occurrence switched (I won’t discuss any of them here to avoid spoiling it for folks) – I actually liked the movie. Ted did not read the book, but he enjoyed the movie as well. Book or movie, the merits of the story still stand. The story is still a good story – which comes across clearly, I think, regardless of whether you read the book or not – and the cinematography was lovely too. It’s just a different experience depending on whether you’ve read the book or not. There’s more detail in the book, which I appreciated and liked and I think added something special to the story, and it was somewhat easy for me to notice the differences (and – okay, one mini spoiler! – I really missed the frequent use of Himmel Street, saukerl, saumensch, arschloch, and the narrator’s ever-present voice in the movie), but these changes and omissions didn’t necessarily upset me. Had I not read the book, I still would have appreciated and enjoyed the story and not felt like I was jipped out of anything life changing. My recommendation: Read the book and go see the movie. They’re both worth your time.
Other movies Ted and I saw in November and December at The Little:
- The Book Thief
- Dallas Buyers Club
- Philomena
- 12 Years a Slave
- Wadjda
- Last Vegas
- Enough Said
My favorites were Philomena, The Book Thief, and Enough Said, followed by Wadjda and 12 Years a Slave. Next week we’ll be seeing Saving Mr. Banks followed by August: Osage County the week after. I’m excited for both!
Have you seen any of these movies? How often do you go to the movie theatre? If you read The Book Thief, what did you think of the movie? Are there any books you do or do not want to be made into movies?
