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A Long Way Down should be first on your reading list! |
Some of this year’s most talked about films, for better or
for worse, have been page-to-screen adventures. The Great Gatsby might have seen the biggest kerfuffle from the
English department, since Baz Luhrmann’s bombastic adaptation often had
moviegoers and reviewers knocking the classroom staple off its pedestal, saying
that the Fitzgerald classic wasn’t very good to begin with. (I disagree, but I
think Gatsby is one of the most
interesting adaptations I’ve seen since it’s wholly faithful to the book, but
also completely out to lunch.) Other goodies, such as last year’s TIFF holdover
What Maisie Knew is a good example of
a film that outdoes a classic novel, while Beautiful Creatures, silly as it is, proves that teen-lit can actually produce some
fun flicks.
This year doesn’t seem to be as major a year for adaptation
as last year was. 2012 had a wave of films that realized ‘unfilmable novels’
with varying degrees success. Midnight’s Children, Life of Pi, Anna Karenina, and On the Road showed that everything books can do, film can do
better. (Well, maybe not On the Road.)
There are plenty of good reads, however, to get you in the mood for a good fall
harvest of movies. Grab a beach towel and one of these books and get a leg up
on all your post-screening conversations to come!
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
First on anyone’s reading list should be Nick Hornby’s
delightful A Long Way Down. Not to
get all Ferris Bueller-y, but this really is a book that can change your life.
Provided one buys the highly convoluted premise of four strangers converging in
their disparate plans to commit suicide on New Year’s Eve and then forming the
unlikeliest of support groups, A Long Way
Down is a humorous, uplifting tale. It’s not so much about death as it is
about wanting to live. (Anyone who saw this year’s Hot Docs film 15 Reasons to Live will probably love
it.) Told from the perspective of each of the four potential lemmings—Maureen,
Martin, J.J. and Jess—A Long Way Down
sees each of the friends evaluate their own reasons to live against the
struggles faced by their peers. A Long
Way Down might be one to watch on during the end of the year races,
provided it finds distribution, since the roles have been well cast with Toni
Collette, Pierce Brosnan, Aaron Paul, and Imogen Poots playing the quartet of
survivors. Maureen is an especially strong part, so keep an eye out for Toni
Collette. Hope to see A Long Way Down
at the festival this year!
Labor Day by Joyce Maynard
Speaking of killer female roles, Kate Winslet could knock it
out of the part with her turn as depressed suburban housewife Adele in Jason
Reitman’s adaptation of Joyce Maynard’s Labor
Day. Winslet’s played similar roles before—Adele is a close relative of
Sarah Pierce from Little Children—and
Winslet is no stranger to letting the audience feel her character’s hunger for
an alternative. Labor Day, though, is
a darkly funny film, so Winslet could add a dimension to the character that we
haven’t really seen in her before. She doesn’t do comedy often enough, but when
she usually nails it when she does. (See: Eternal
Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.)
Like A Long Way Down, the premise of Labor Day requires some work from the audience to cast aside their preconceptions about plausibility when Adele and her son, Henry, become hosts to an escaped convict who uses their home as a hideaway during his run from the law. The events of the Labor Day weekend, told from Henry's perspective, create one of the most hilarious, moving, and surprising page-turners I've read in a while. Labor Day’s strange, dark take on the dearth of suburbia just cries Todd Field, but Reitman might be a good match to balance the humour and tone of the tale to bring it close to home. Judge for yourself! Labor Day is a quick read—you could easily read it in a day—and it’s a delight if one reads it with Winslet in mind for Adele.
Like A Long Way Down, the premise of Labor Day requires some work from the audience to cast aside their preconceptions about plausibility when Adele and her son, Henry, become hosts to an escaped convict who uses their home as a hideaway during his run from the law. The events of the Labor Day weekend, told from Henry's perspective, create one of the most hilarious, moving, and surprising page-turners I've read in a while. Labor Day’s strange, dark take on the dearth of suburbia just cries Todd Field, but Reitman might be a good match to balance the humour and tone of the tale to bring it close to home. Judge for yourself! Labor Day is a quick read—you could easily read it in a day—and it’s a delight if one reads it with Winslet in mind for Adele.
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Kate Winslet in Labor Day |
Serena by Ron Rash
Serena is by no
means a bad book, but it strikes me as one the upcoming adaptations that could
be improved greatly in a visual medium. (In fairness, I’m not done reading the
book, although I’m not racing to finish it, either.) The story of lumber barons
George and Serena Pemberton, played in the film by Silver Linings Playbook co-stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley
Cooper, could provide a visually striking and resonant take on American empire
and capitalism. Serena is a slow,
almost observational reading of American progress during The Great Depression.
It’s an anti-western in the vein of McCabe
& Mrs. Miller, while its tone and political subtext calls to mind There Will Be Blood. (This could make it
a victim of mis-marketing à la Killing Them Softly.) It’s certainly a project to watch, though, after the chemistry
Lawrence and Cooper shared in Silver
Linings Playbook. Serena could
give both stars an even greater chance to show off their range.
Serena Pemberton is a strong character and she poses a great
opportunity for Lawrence, but Rash’s book defines Serena almost entirely
through men. Serena is smart, cool, and headstrong when speaks and acts on her
own; however, a surprising amount of the narration and the dialogue between the
male characters puts Serena on some divine pedestal. It’s awkward to read the
elevation of a character in bromantic dialogue such as, “‘There’s a
manifestation of true beauty,’ Wilkie said admiringly. ‘ Such an image gave the
Greeks and the Romans their deities. Gaze upon her, Reverend. She’ll never be
crucified by the rabble.’” Ick.
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Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in Serena |
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

Word from the film’s premiere at Cannes certainly noted
appreciation for Franco’s ambitious attempt to offer a faithful, yet cinematic
reading of the novel. Franco reportedly uses devices such as split-screen and
point-of-view to capture the disjointedness of the narration, although multiple
perspectives could confuse audiences just as easily as they try to follow the
travelling circus of the Bundren family. Like last year’s Anna Karenina, might As I Lay
Dying be one of the films that are easier to read if one has read the book?
The Believers by Zoë Heller

The Believers has
been in adaptation limbo for years. Patrick Marber, the screenwriter of Notes, was
reportedly hired to adapt the novel, but the project has seen nary a blip
in the trades for quite some time. In fact, The
Believers was included on a
list of page-to-screen projects collecting dust on Rudin’s bookshelf back in 2010. I’ll surely have to
reread The Believers before if
the film makes it to theatres. (Yay.) Perhaps if we all read the book, and rack
up a few more sales for Miss Heller, then The
Believers will finally make its way to a theatre near us?
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup
Twelve Years a Slave
is McQueen’s first adaptation and his first film working as director only. (The
screenplay was written by John Ridley, who boasts the varied credits of Red Tails, Undercover Brother, and U-Turn.)
McQueen’s breakthrough was the visceral historical film Hunger, so Slave offers a
fine work with which the visually ingenuity of the director can solidify his
status as a major talent. (McQueen’s fine work on 2011’s Shame also lets hopeful viewers assume that he won’t sugarcoat
historical accuracy for an easy sell.) Expect Twelve Years a Slave to be a major player in the winter awards
races, especially for Chiwetel Eljiofor’s turn as Solomon Northup. With a
high-calibre cast that includes Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender, Quvenzhané
Wallis, Alfre Woodard, and Paul Giamatti, it had better be!
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Twelve Years a Slave |
August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
Streep, Streep, Streep, Streep, Streep, Streep, Streep, etc.
Meryl looks like she kills the lead role in the adaptation of Tracy Letts’s
play August: Osage County. Starring
as Violet Weston, the sassy matriarch of a large Oklahoman family, Streep gets
the juicy role of playing a woman battling cancer, popping pills, searching for
a missing husband, and dropping zinger after zinger as she criticizes her
estranged daughter (played by Julia Roberts).
Letts’s previous stage-to-screen credit saw the playwright
adapt his own Killer Joe for director
William Friedkin, and he’ll write the screenplay once again, except this time
for director John Wells. Wells is only on his second feature after 2011’s The Company Men, so it’s a bit
surprising that he got a cast of this calibre on his sophomore effort. The Company Men was a fine ensemble film
nevertheless, so devotees of The Church of Meryl have little reason to worry. Streep’s
in good company, with Ewan McGregor, Juliette Lewis, Margot Martindale, and Sam
Shepard among the supporting cast. The play August:
Osage County won the double whammy
of the Pulitzer Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play (as did Streep’s last
adapted drama Doubt), so there’s plenty
of reason that such a prestigious work is garnering high expectations with such
a strong cast adding to the pedigree. Add the heavy bonus of Argo producers George Clooney and Grant
Heslov and Oscar mover and shaker Harvey Weinstein, and August: Osage County might as well book at hotel room in Los
Angeles for February! Fourth Oscar next year?
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
I hadn’t read The Hunger Games before the first installment in the franchise hit theatres, so
I went in with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. Impressed that
this dystopian take from teen lit was far more than Battle Royale light, I read The
Hunger Games during the summer and was again surprised that it was such a
good, enjoyable read. (I’m a bit surprised that it’s found its way to the
syllabi of high school English classes though.) I actually prefer the film The Hunger Games to the book. Perhaps it
was the presence of Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss or the intuitive addition of
the game-makers and commentators, but the film by Gary Ross has a chilling sense
of urgency the novel lacks. Ross isn’t returning to Catching Fire, though, so the next installment of The Hunger Games will be done by Francis
Lawrence, who completely botched Water
for Elephants. (In fairness, Elephants
wasn’t that great a novel to begin with.) I’ll give Lawrence (no relation to
Jennifer) the benefit of the doubt, since the teaser for Catching Fire looks pretty darn good. And with the likes of Philip
Seymour Hoffman, Jena Malone, Amanda Plummer, and Jeffrey Wright joining the
cast for Games’ second round, I’ll
certainly be lining up on opening night!
Hold Fast by Kevin Major
Canadian cinema has seen a boon in coming of age films this
year. Old Stock, Picture Day, and Molly Maxwell all introduced new voices on the film scene while telling
appropriate stories about characters coming into their own. Now, another story
of growing up is set to make a splash with Can Con this fall: Justin Simms’
take on Kevin Major’s Hold Fast. The
book is frequently compared to Catcher in
the Rye and Anne of Green Gables.
Hold Fast sees two young boys go on a
journey of self-discovery in the Newfoundland wilderness, as they escape the
city and find freedom in nature. Comparisons to the recent release The Kings of Summer seem to be
inevitable, but Major’s novel has been a staple for young readers and it looks
to be one of the most noteworthy upcoming adaptations of Can Lit. Early word
from a market screening at Berlin was promising, so Hold Fast might gain an advantage over the Sundance favourite.
Few Canadian films make use of the Newfoundland landscape,
too, so Hold Fast offers a fine
alternative to the Toronto/Quebec-centric films that receive the most attention
in this country. Aside from the 2001 boon of The Shipping News (an American film to boot) and Rare Birds (a hoot!), Newfoundlanders
only get to see their seaside views in TV’s Republic
of Doyle. Much of Canada might get to see the eastern province thanks to
the presence of Molly Parker (Trigger) in the role of Aunt Ellen in the film.
Parker’s name brought some initial buzz to the project last fall and she’s
bound to bring more since she’s reteaming with Hold Fast screenwriter Rosemary House to make her directorial debut
with the adaptation of the Newfoundland-set The
Ballad of Maura McKenzie. Parker also starred in Rare Birds and 2002’s Marion
Bridge, so the East Coast has done well by her.
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Molly Parker in Hold Fast |
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
The Queen of Can Lit envisioned through the eyes of the
Queen of #cdnfilm? This sounds like a perfect match. Sarah Polley opens Stories We Tell with an appropriate
quote from Margaret Atwood’s Alias Grace
that sets up the elusiveness and playfulness of storytelling that unfurls
throughout the film. Polley, as she said in a recent interview,
didn’t have the rights to the Atwood novel when she included the quote in Stories, but she’s been wanting to do
the project for years. Alias Grace,
Atwood’s best novel, poses an epic undertaking for Polley. The book features
many a thread that’s woven its way into a Polley film before—the messiness of
love, the problem of memory, and the novelty of storytelling— so, Alias Grace is just a different
dressing, really, for topics the filmmaker handles well. What will be exciting,
though, will be to see how Polley realizes the pivotal séance sequence that
serves as the novel’s climax. Grace is
a story on a larger scale than Polley has ever worked on before, but the epic
scope and the period setting of the tale aren’t the least bit out of her league
The historical fiction of Alias Grace sees convicted murderess Grace Marks tell her notorious
tale of homicide to Dr. Simon Jordan (a fictional doc). The book weaves between
the present thread of Grace’s time with Dr. Jordan and the past thread of Grace’s
account of the events leading up to the murders of her then-employer and fellow
housekeeper. Grace, thanks to its
dual play on past and present, actually seems like a relative to Kathryn
Bigelow’s The Weight of Water, which
featured Polley in a supporting role as a woman who survived a murderous attack
being investigated in the present by the sailing cavalcade of Sean Penn,
Catherine McCormack, and Liz Hurley.
The memory of Polley’s role in The Weight of Water at first makes her seem like an obvious choice
to play Grace. Polley has yet to direct herself in a film, so there’s an
opportunity for an even greater challenge with Alias Grace, but in the aforementioned interview,
she hints that she’ll mostly be staying behind the camera for the next little
while. Casting hasn’t been announced for the film yet, since it’s still being
written. However, a few people have tossed about the idea of Benedict
Cumberbatch playing Dr. Jordan. I would have never thought of him, but he seems
like a perfect fit now that it’s been mentioned. It’s fun to play
guess-the-actor when you’ve read a novel that is still being adapted. I think
it would be a hilarious bit of stunt casting to see Polley’s Take This Waltz star Sarah Silverman as
the ill-fated bawdy housemaid Nancy, while someone like Bruce Greenwood might
work well for her employer, Thomas Kinnear. If we’re reaching for Can Con
points, Canadian actors like Charlotte Sullivan or Kristin Adams could work for
Grace. Or maybe Sarah Gadon? Who else? Maybe Jennifer Lawrence, if Alias Grace could benefit from having an
attractive Hollywood star? Whom would you cast in Alias Grace?