Friday, September 7, 2007

Title Thingy 2

I was very impressed this week with the quality of the movie version of The Hours. It effectively tells the story with mostly minor changes that transition it from paper to film. Most of the changes involve an outward portrayal emotion that was portrayed by thoughts in the book. Another group of changes involved dates. Mrs. Woolf's day is in the same year but both Mrs. D's and Mrs. Brown's days have been shifted forward (Mrs. Brown by two years and Mrs. D's by probably the same). The reason for this (I think) is to keep Mrs. D in the present day, so she was moved from the end of the twentieth century to 2001. Mrs. Brown was moved to prevent her and Richie from becoming too old. Another change in time was cutting Clarissa's relationship with Sally in half; I have no idea the reason for that change. The change that bothers me the most is frustratingly understandable for the film. Various character relationships were changed to give them more reasons to go crazy. The scene at the train station in the movie really diminishes, in my opinion, Leonard. The fight that Mrs. Woolf has with him makes him seem much less like the man that she describes as "entirely patient with me & incredibly good." For Mrs. Brown her husband packed on a few pounds and was balding; he did not look at all like a war hero that could have had any woman he wanted. Richie was much more creepy and clingy (the scene were he was dropped off at Mrs. Latch's house was downright scary). For Richard (I know he wasn't one of the three main characters but bear with me) Mrs. D. became the emotional wreck, instead of Louis, and the question of who the party was for was more of a focus. These changes make the problems of the three characters who decide to end it (Laura uses Canada while Richard and Virginia use gravity) much less conflicts of the soul and more surface type issues. This makes sense for a film and I applaud them for their talent but it still bothers me.

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