Winter's Tale

[itsallovernow]

I...there aren't really adequate words for me to express how I feel about this movie even being a movie, let alone this sort of lush romanticism that's getting sprinkled around it like it's this sappy, genial period piece of a thing. And maybe the movie will be, but... I LOVE this book. I love it's excesses and time travel and over-writing and philosophizing and WINTER. I love all of it's wonderful, bruising absurdity, and love, and epicness and I cannot on any level imagine what persuaded them to try and film it when the wonder of it is getting lost in the chill, snowy paradise of fin-de-siecle New York and a new age that doesn't exist.

So, I will undoubtedly force M. to go see it with me because I lack all willpower and because while he is fair too tall, there's something insane enough in Russell Crowe's face that he will make a fine Pearly Soames.

So, thoughts? Other fans of this book? Are you going to go see it? Are you dreading it? Excited? Both?

Comments

[slb44.livejournal.com]

I'm a huge fan of the book and have been cringing or flipping the channel when the ad comes on my tv. I haven't reread the book in years because I'm always afraid that it won't live up to my memories but I'm feeling the urge get to do so get stronger and stronger.

Please let me know what you think of the movie.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Done!

[ethrosdemon.livejournal.com]

Holy shit! I thought I was alone here! I posted about this yesterday. The book is so old, why now? Why these actors? How will they even make it work as a movie? Of course I have to see it, but I have no expectations for it even though I love Colin and Rusty both. Nothing can change how I feel about the book, so no skin off my nose.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

All of these things, yes!! I know it won't alter how I feel about the book (I finally had to buy a new version since my copy disintegrated), but I'm just...baffled that they'd try.

[kerlin.livejournal.com]

I have not yet read the book so I am in the position of wondering if I should pick it up before the movie, or watch the movie first. I hear it has some excellent horses.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

I suspect that you will like the book, in which case, read it first (particularly being trapped in a Vermont winter). There is a most excellent horse in the book.

[ropo.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the book, but I saw the movie a good few months ago at a test screening. I don't want to spoil you if you don't want to be spoiled, but I can tell you some things if you want ... it looks like it's not as complicated, time-wise, as the book, for instance.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Mostly, I'd like to know how you reacted to it. Did you enjoy it? Did it work as a movie? Or was it horribly sincere and sappy?

[ropo.livejournal.com]

I ... thought it was a bit of a mess, really. It had nice bits and some nice visuals, but was kind of crazy. I think they tried to make it less time-hoppy than the book, from what I understand.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

The book is...the time travel just...is. It's not really a trick, or a huge issue. There's just a cloud wall...And then a 100 years.

[cofax7]

Definitely dreading it. The book is so vivid, but it's a result of the prose and the narrative, just the sort of thing that translates poorly to movies. I expect it will be awful.

[thassalia.livejournal.com]

Yep, this is the worry. There's such momentum in the book, the narrative and the story and characters are so driven by the WORDS!

[raithen.livejournal.com]

IN his blog Neil Gaiman said he liked it, FWIW:

Last night, I went to see WINTER'S TALE, Mark Helprin's remarkable novel, made into a film by writer (and now director) Akiva Goldsman.

Firstly: I really, really enjoyed it. Akiva took a huge, sprawling novel that spans over a hundred years and took the elements he needed from it to tell the story he had to tell. He made it small, of necessity. It's a fantasy movie, with demons and angels and a flying horse: it contains a noble burglar, a beautiful dying pianist, an absolutely terrifying Russell Crowe, Will Smith stealing scenes as Lucifer, and New York, New York all the way.

Secondly, I'd seen a trailer or two before I went to see it. And the trailer is, well it's wrong. It tells you it's going to be a specific kind of movie and it isn't that. It's not really a love story, small l about the love between two attractive people who want to do kissing, although it may be a Love story (capital L about Love, and who and what we love, and why, and what it means for those we love to die).

If you like fantasy, or New York, or magical realism, you should see it. You really should. (You should also read the book. And John Crowley's novel Little, Big, which was published about the same time.) The screening audience loved it.

My only qualm, cavil or beef is this...

There's a thing that happens in Hollywood, when you hand in a script with magic in it, and the people at the studio who read it say "We don't quite understand... can you explain the rules? What are the rules here? The magic must have rules" and sometimes when they say that to me I explain that I am sure it does, just as life has rules, but they didn't give me a rule book to life when I was born, and I've been trying to figure it out as I go along, and I am sure it is the same thing for magic; and sometimes I explain that, yes, the magic has rules, and if they read again carefully they can figure out what they are; and sometimes I sigh and put in a line here and a line there that spells things out, says, YES THESE ARE THE RULES YOU DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE TO PAY ATTENTION and then everyone is very happy.

And there were places in the film where it felt like Akiva was, either because he'd been asked, or preemptively, explaining the magical rules. And I trusted him and the film and would rather have just figured it out for myself.

There. It's a real film -- it reminded me most of all of Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King... Neil Gaiman, http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2014/02/why-you-should-see-winters-tale-and.html