Author Topic: Movies & Books Into Movies (Read 592000 times)

pedln · « **Reply #2560 on:** May 17, 2012, 08:13:57 PM »

So many movies – how do you choose what to watch?
Reviews? Recommendations? Actors? Availability?
Do you choose a movie the same way you choose a book?

And where do you like to watch most of your movies?
Do you stream movies from Netflix and other places?
Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever watched a film?

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Movies Based on the Book

Join us in an ongoing discussion of your favorite movies right now.
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Your Discussion Leader: pedln

pedln · « **Reply #2561 on:** May 17, 2012, 08:16:01 PM »

MaryPage, I was looking forward to your thoughts about the film and am delighted to see your critique here. I'm about halfway through the book, enjoying it, but thinking , knowing the cast, that the movie may well be better than the book. If you don't think you'd be giving secrets away, could you tell us the first names of the characters played by Judi, Maggie, Penelope and Bill. I think I know Bill's character, but am having trouble with the others.

Can 't wait to see the film, someday. Is it just us -- I'm really hyped up about this film -- or could this be the big hit of the summer?

marcie · « **Reply #2562 on:** May 17, 2012, 08:21:08 PM »

Thank you very much, MaryPage, for your insights and comments about the film. Pedln, after you see it, let us know if you think it's going to be a hit!

MaryPage · « **Reply #2563 on:** May 17, 2012, 08:31:56 PM »

Pedln, you are asking names from an 83 year old (next week) woman with a huge forgettery, but I'll try another approach than names:

Judi Dench is the narrator and she plays the woman just widowed and apparently her husband gambled or something, they don't stress what at all, and she has nearly nothing left and does NOT want to go live with her son. She goes alone to India.

Maggie Smith plays a woman who spent her entire life working for one family. I gather she was their housekeeper. They have let her go, due to her being too old, in their opinion, to be useful. She has no funds and no family AND she needs a hip operation. She is a hoot at first, but then she comes into her own and really shines at the end.

Bill Nighy plays Penelope Wilton's husband. She plays his wife. Apparently they have been married nearly 40 years and have one daughter in whose planned business start up they invested, or he invested, both of their retirement accounts. All was lost. So it is that they are off for India. They are the only couple of the 7 British who fly off to a new life in India.

That's all you asked for.

marjifay · « **Reply #2564 on:** May 18, 2012, 01:19:08 PM »

Thanks, Marcie, for the link to the PBS previow of Little Dorrit. It's quite a long series, as there are 4 discs from Netflix, each with several episodes. Don't know whether my interest will hold up thru all of them, but so far it's fascinating.

I don't watch much PBS TV -- find it mostly boring. Actually, don't watch much TV. Do like the Terry Gross Fresh Air program and Garrison Keillor's show on Public Radio.

Marj

JeanneP · « **Reply #2565 on:** May 18, 2012, 04:22:31 PM »

It has not opened in my town yet. Can't understand why.

Last night I watched a DVD that was over 3 hours long. (In 3 parts). Really enjoyed it.
Was a BBC name of "Daniel Deronda" The actor that is in Downton Abbey. Hugh Bonneville. Really a nasty person in this one. Amazed at how short a person he is.

Babi · « **Reply #2566 on:** May 18, 2012, 05:34:29 PM »

Really, JEANNE? I don't remember Daniel Deronda being a nasty person, but then all I really
remember is a boat full of people heading off to a new life. As best I recall, this was because of
issues of religious persecution. Have I got it all mixed up with something else?

ginny · « **Reply #2567 on:** May 18, 2012, 08:01:32 PM »

That's what I was beginning to suspect, thank you for that review and telling us who the characters were, MaryPage. Those of you who read the book, do you recognize any of the book characters?

MaryPage, what is the name of the character if you can recall that the young Dev Patel plays? I can't see his character in the book. He can't be the manager, is he "Sonny?"

I'm going to see it Wednesday, it sounds completely different, to me, with the possible exception of the Judi Dench character, could that be Evelyn, if you read the book?

MaryPage · « **Reply #2568 on:** May 18, 2012, 08:02:01 PM »

A lot of theater owners do not want to book The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel because they think it is a movie only the ancient will go see and they want to draw in the younger crowd with their numbers and their money and their habit of snacks and drinks, etc.

You and your friends and neighbors can call and ask if it will be shown; tell them you are planning to go see it.

We have a humongous retired crowd (simply heaps of Admirals) here in Annapolis, so I think that is why we got it.

I think this is one reason Judi Dench came over here and has been working so hard to promote the film. If you have been paid, at age 77, to do a film about people your age, you have to be anxious that the producers make their money and don't LOSE money. I also think this movie will garner a lot of awards, but that still won't draw the young.

JeanneP · « **Reply #2569 on:** May 18, 2012, 08:05:22 PM »

No. Danial Deronda was a good guy. The Part that Hugh Bonaville was of the womans husband. He was the nasty one.

MaryPage · « **Reply #2570 on:** May 18, 2012, 08:09:46 PM »

Sorry, Ginny; you posted while I was writing.

I did not read the book.

Yes, Patel plays Sonny. In the movie, Sonny is one of 3 sons who have inherited their father's run down hotel. The other two sons are successfull business/professional men and have no interest in the place. Sonny advertises it and is running it, but not with great success. Gosh, but that young man can act! He is beyond marvelous.

ginny · « **Reply #2571 on:** May 18, 2012, 09:15:32 PM »

Yes he is good. Thank you. In the book Sonny is quite different. So we have two different entities here. I look forward to the movie, if, for nothing else, to see what the movie makers thought should be made of it.

Is there a character called Norman in the movie, do you recall? I hate to dump all these questions on you! Norman did live with his daughter and son in law, a doctor?

MaryPage · « **Reply #2572 on:** May 19, 2012, 07:57:40 AM »

I rather expect the book went into a whole lot more detail about the individual lives of these British elderly who went to live a life they could afford in India. I do not recall a man with a daughter and son-in-law named Norman. Tell you what: you can Google the movie cast and find out. I'll do that right now and come back here.

OK, yes, there is a Norman, and he is played by Ronald Pickup. I got to know nothing whatsoever about him in the film except that he was old, charming, and hoping rather desperately that his sex life, which seemed to be all over in England, would not be so in India. There are a couple of really funny scenes featuring him, and he is a nice addition to the group.

As I say, Google "Cast of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" and scroll down and it will tell you ALL.

Babi · « **Reply #2573 on:** May 19, 2012, 09:36:57 AM »

Ah, thank you, JEANNE. Glad to clear that up.

ginny · « **Reply #2574 on:** May 19, 2012, 10:58:49 AM »

That's a good idea, MaryPage, why did I not think of that? Thank you.

Obviously Norman's end is not the same.

It appears to me, having read the book, that other than the concept of nice elderly people (one of whom in the book is 73!) going to live in India, there's nothing actually that resembles the tone or plot of the book, that is, it's not more detail but it's a different story entirely, but I'll find out Wednesday. I'll go right now to IMDb.

MaryPage · « **Reply #2575 on:** May 19, 2012, 11:50:31 AM »

I look forward eagerly to your viewing the film and then giving a comparison. Since I have NOT read the book, I cannot do this.

But to repeat: the movie is beyond wonderful. So true to what it is to be in our age group.

pedln · « **Reply #2576 on:** May 19, 2012, 11:55:03 AM »

The Marigold film must be quite different, the only connection being the "nice elderly British people" who go to India to live in a rather run-down hotel. Norman is BIG in the book -- at least throught the first half, which is about where I am. He's probably the main reason I call it "crude, rude, and lewd." I think Maggie Smith has a hip problem in the film -- don't know if that makes her Evelyn or not. It seems as though the film characters may be quite independent of those in the book. But with such a talented cast it can't be anything but a hit. So, I'll have to wait for the DVD, and the powers that be had better include subtitles or I'll have a hissy fit. (I still haven't forgiven them not including such in Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont.)

If you haven't seen Mrs. Henderson Presents, with Maggie Smith, it's available on Netflix, as are several years of Judi Dench in As Time Goes By.

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2577 on:** May 19, 2012, 12:32:55 PM »

I saw 'Mrs Henderson Presents' at the cinema when it first came out, but I didn't think it was very good at all. Loved Judi Dench in Ladies In Lavender, Iris and Pride & Prejudice.

Rosemary

MaryPage · « **Reply #2578 on:** May 19, 2012, 12:34:16 PM »

WARNING; THIS IS A SPOILER. DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW.

Judi Dench plays the main character in the film. A widow who feels she has never been brave or made a single decision on her own, she now enjoys brave and actually finds WORK, paid work, right there in India! She also finds real love and companionship.

Maggie Smith plays a forcibly retired housekeeper with a bad hip. She has surgery in India and eventually gets out of the wheel chair. She also does a 180 and comes to love India and she, almost single handily, saves the hotel! She had been feeling bitter and depressed at no longer being viable and being unappreciated and thrown away. Now, bringing all of her decades and decades of experience and talents for running things to the fore, she proves an old lady still has what it takes!

Tom Wilkinson plays a reknowned judge who was raised in India as a boy. He is the only one of the 7 who has ever been to India previously. Having left the Love Of His Life behind years and years ago when he returned to England, he is now unwell and goes back to find that person. He does, and dies.

MaryPage · « **Reply #2579 on:** May 19, 2012, 12:43:13 PM »

MORE SPOILERS:

Bill Nighy plays a long-suffering, very decent and amusing human being who has, out of a sense of loyalty, put up with an extremely nagging and complaining wife for almost 40 years. His sense of Duty is overwhelming, and his life has been All About Her and all about their daughter. He and his wife, Penelope Wilton (Downton Abbey!), invested all of their retirement in a start up of their daughter's. She promised all would be well and they would get their money back. It was not and they did not and they wind up in India. Penelope winds up the only one of the 7 who returns to England. She literally gives Bill to Judi at the end of the movie.

The Norman character finds someone to love him and lives happily ever afterwards with her at the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The part played by Celia Imrie (have I got that right?), who I have seen a bazillion times in the BBC stuff and I just adore her, she is a hoot and a half and you can tell at the end that she is in her element, so to speak, and is going to be just fine. Probably wind up marrying a gazillion dollars and become the final owner of the hotel, or some such! That last is my own take.

Babi · « **Reply #2580 on:** May 20, 2012, 08:29:54 AM »

Wasn't that aggravating, PEDLN? I had so looked forward to watching "Mrs. Palfrey..."
only to find it had no closed captioning. I saw most of the 'As Time Goes By' episodes;
loved them.

pedln · « **Reply #2581 on:** May 20, 2012, 10:16:30 AM »

There is a book with the same title, Babi, by Elizabeth Taylor (not the actress). I started it and then got waylaid into something else, probably a library hold, and never went back to it. Will have to try again someday.

MaryPage, what a dilemma -- to be spoiled or not to be spoiled.

Last night I watched Tinker, Tailor . . . . and almost turned it off after the first 20 - 30 minutes. I didn't know what was going on, nobody was saying very much, lots of stills of faces just looking. But then I decided to go with the flow and get out of it what I could. Finally could determine which face went with which suit, could even determine which scenes were flashbacks. No doubt I missed some of its significance. It was okay, so so, glad I didn't pay money at a movie theatre to see it.

ginny · « **Reply #2582 on:** May 20, 2012, 11:32:06 AM »

hahaha, MaryPage, thank you. It bears absolutely that I can see no resemblance to the plot of the book save the names, some of them, possibly, and the idea of going to India to live out your golden years. There's no job for Evelyn, no daughter start up, the themes and plots of the book are simply absent and new characters have been added to the movie, important ones in the book left out, Maggie has no operation and is not in a wheel chair and poor Norman (spoiler alert!) does not end up happily (and that's putting it mildly) in the arms of his love. Not by a looonggg shot.

No resemblance whatsoever except for the title and the old folks going off to a retirement home in India.

Thank you.

MaryPage · « **Reply #2583 on:** May 20, 2012, 11:51:38 AM »

Ginny, I am absolutely dying to hear how you feel about the movie once you have seen it. Is it playing near you?

Frybabe · « **Reply #2584 on:** May 20, 2012, 02:56:12 PM »

Well, Ginny, that may take the cake for book and movie divergence. It reminds me of Under the Tuscan Sun which I thought quite different, except that I don't remember any characters missing or added to that one.

MaryPage · « **Reply #2585 on:** May 20, 2012, 04:10:43 PM »

I went to see The Hunger Games on Friday. I was really interested in finding out for myself which was better: the book or the movie. Most had told me the book, but my great granddaughter Brooke, age 11, assured me the movie was better.

The book, as is most often the case, wins with me. Now I will give details: but with another SPOILER warning:

The gal who plays the main person is just fine in the part. So is the boy who plays Gale. I did not much care for the actor who plays Peeta. He was not bad, he just did not appeal to me as filling my image of Peeta.

The little sister and the mother were too bland. Really disappointing. The way the movie portrays EFFIE, the over silly scheduler, it would have been so very easy to both costume and play the part. Whoever the actress is, she must have pull with the director, because she is really bad. And, except for one pair of false eyelashes, she is too washed out looking. In my estimation, this part would be hard to over do. Color it way, way underdone.

On the whole, I liked the movie. They had a lot of stuff that must have been extremely difficult to portray. I was disappointed they never showed the bread for Katness which was sent by District 11 after Rue's death. I thought this extremely important to the entire plot. Also, the movie has Katniss start the revolution during the games by making a hand gesture. That was not in the book.

Babi · « **Reply #2586 on:** May 21, 2012, 08:05:16 AM »

I think one of the main problems with reading a book and then seeing the film is that
we form our own images of the characters. If the film version is different, we feel that
it's wrong.

pedln · « **Reply #2587 on:** May 21, 2012, 10:19:00 AM »

Quote

No resemblance whatsoever except for the title and the old folks going off to a retirement home in India.

by Ginny

Actually the British title is something like Those Foolish Things. It's just been since the film release in the US that the US title is the same as the film.

ginny · « **Reply #2588 on:** May 21, 2012, 10:44:53 AM »

HAaaaaaaaaaaaa Ok one less resemblance, thank you for that reminder, Pedln. The new edition has Judi Dench and some of the other characters including Dev Patel on the cover, which is in slick, nice marigold orange, and the title of the movie.

MaryPage, I am going Wednesday to see the Marigold movie, it will be very interesting, apparently.

pedln · « **Reply #2589 on:** May 23, 2012, 09:38:51 PM »

Well, OK by golly, we count for something -- a viable audience.

Older Faces on Screen Draw an Overlooked Crowd

Ginny, did y ou like the movie?

marcie · « **Reply #2590 on:** May 23, 2012, 10:12:36 PM »

Thanks for the link to that good article, Pedln.

ginny · « **Reply #2591 on:** May 24, 2012, 06:57:57 AM »

MaryPage and Pedln: believe it or not, and I don't, apparently the movie owners in the two towns I am nearest decided to yield to the common wisdom about the limited audience it might draw (they need to read Pedln's article), and not stock the movie: it's not playing. Men in Black 3 is playing, sometimes 3 shows in the same theater but Marigold is not playing and not "coming." So I haven't seen it.

I have a feeling it will be part of the in flight entertainment in July, Virgin Atlantic has a lot of movies still playing in the theaters on their flights, so maybe there's some hope to see it then. We don't have a lot of choices here, and I'm not going to drive to Charlotte or Atlanta (it's not in Asheville, either, apparently), to see it, but they have been talking about it quite a bit in the newspaper, and bothering to rate it (2 stars) and we all thought without really checking that it was here, without pausing to consider!! Duh!! Who knew?

It's not here! If it comes I'll see it and report back, phooey!

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2592 on:** May 24, 2012, 08:22:15 AM »

How disappointing! And it's so difficult (at least it is for me) to hear/see those films on planes. Presumably the DVD will appear eventually.

Rosemary

Babi · « **Reply #2593 on:** May 24, 2012, 08:43:06 AM »

Exactly, ROSEMARY. The public movies are useless to me, in any case, and Netflix will send me
the movie as soon as it's available. I will enjoy it just as much watching it later.

pedln · « **Reply #2594 on:** May 24, 2012, 10:06:37 AM »

What dumb marketing on the part of the theatres. Write 'em a letter, Ginny. All they need to do is add a special showing for their "limited draw" audience -- 11 am. The limited draws will have finished their morning ablutions, can come to the show, go out for lunch afterwards, and go home and take a nap.

And the theatre can show Men in Black the rest of the day and evening.

MaryPage · « **Reply #2595 on:** May 24, 2012, 10:37:23 AM »

I am depressed to hear there is no place at present that Ginny can go to see Marigold; but possibly that can be remedied. It is wonderful to see on the full screen, so if ANY of you have the chance, see it in a theater. But getting the DVD will be a treat, as well. I plan to buy it.

Shocked to hear it only ranked 2 stars. The acting was SO MUCH better than anything else out there. I think someone in their thirties or forties who does not like slow movies about the really old was bored by it; that's what I think.

salan · « **Reply #2596 on:** May 24, 2012, 11:56:27 AM »

I just got the book from my library. Even though I live in a small town, our library is really good about ordering books that I request. My SIL saw the movie in Austin, TX and loved it! She & I both are lovers of Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, etc. It may be a while until I get to see the movie.
Sally

rosemarykaye · « **Reply #2597 on:** May 24, 2012, 12:12:57 PM »

MaryPage, I agree with you about the rating (though I haven't seen it yet) - if you read the Guardian newspaper reviews, for example, they don't like anything unless it's got an incomprehensible (or no) plot and is subtitled from Japanese.

And even if the reviewer wasn't trying to look highbrow, it's so true that different things appeal to different age groups - my 17 year old didn't like Mamma Mia at all ('it's not very realistic' - not like her favourite Lord of the Rings then!), but I absolutely loved it. She also found the DVD of the TV series of Brideshead Revisited 'boring' whereas everyone I know of a similar age to me adores it. I think I would rather eat cold porridge than see 'Men In Black'

Rosemary

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #2598 on:** May 24, 2012, 12:44:29 PM »

My sentiments exactly, Rosemary (re: Men In Black).

My daughter had coerced me into watching MIB, the first one, when it came out. I thought it was the most pointless thing I had ever seen! But there have been many since then that beat it out for pointless! (Almost everything on the big screen today, in fact!)
I guess my only recommendations lately, for grown-up movies, would be "Hugo"; "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" and more current, "Bernie" which is a movie that will probably only appeal to us Texans, or maybe other small-town, Southern-ish populations. And big city, pseudo-intellectuals will laugh, roar and make fun of us. But hey, anyone watching "jersey shore" or "housewives of New Jersey, have no room to laugh at us! LOL I am seeing "Marigold" on Saturday with my dear friend who reviews movies locally here, and has already seen it, but wants to share its lovelieness with me!

MaryPage · « **Reply #2599 on:** May 24, 2012, 01:11:02 PM »

I saw and loved Salmon Fishing On The Yemen. You have to really have a rather laid back, English appreciation of humor to really dig that movie. Since that is precisely my own sense of humor, I, of course, adored it.

I get madder and madder when I fume about The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. For one thing, if it does not make money those actors have acted in their last movie. At least together. Each may, or then again, may not, be called on when an ancient grandparent is required by a script. For another, it is a generational thing and I cannot get TOO mad, just too, too sad, really. I mean, the differences in the generations are HUGE, and it is now our GRANDchildren who are setting the pace. If it does not have SEX, and lots of it, VIOLENCE, with guns blazing away, and car or plane races between the good guys and the bad, with heaps and heaps of incredible and impossible technology and science fiction thrown in, oh, and nudity; the movie is no d**n good!

No sex in Marigold. Just yearning for it and some real love and real romance. No violence. No technology, none whatsoever. Sigh. I agree with you, Dear Rosemary.

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Author Topic: Movies & Books Into Movies (Read 592000 times)