Suburban Girl

There are constantly news of books being adapted for film, and some are great ideas while others make me wary. There are loads of bad adaptations (remember Suburban Girl based on Melissa Bank's The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing? Yeah, most people don't.) and a few examples of the opposite (The Jane Austen Book Club made for a better movie than book, in my opinion).

So while the risks are high, the results hit-or-miss, Hollywood consistently turns to the bookshelf for new ideas. What stories have you been able to easily envision on the big screen? I have always thought the epic page-turner I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb would make a great movie (and apparently there's one in development, but details are vague). Also, earth to Hollywood: Jennifer Weiner's Good in Bed would make a great movie with a relatable protagonist — and it already has a fan base to boot. So what is the hold up? I know Jodi Picoult's novel My Sister's Keeper is being adapted, though I also think Vanishing Acts would translate well to screen. Finally, the whole time I was reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I could see it played out as a movie — though it would need a director with a brilliant, artful eye.

What books do you think would do well on the silver screen?

Source

Sometimes movies go straight to DVD and you can kind of guess why (sidenote: thank you, Molly, for watching Blonde Ambition so I don't have to!). But then there are those sweet-looking films with some big names — Alec Baldwin, Michelle Pfeiffer, Paul Rudd, Sarah Michelle Prinze — that pique my curiosity. What could be so bad about movies like Suburban Girl and I Could Never Be Your Woman that they went straight to DVD? Well, in honor of Valentine's Day, I popped in these straight-to-DVD romances to find out just that.

The Description:
"Neophyte editor Brett Eisenberg (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is paying her dues in New York's publishing world when she attracts Archie Knox (Alec Baldwin), an aging industry luminary. Soon, their romance is complicated by real-life pressures, including Archie's alcoholism and Brett's dying father."
The Good:
Some of you may recall The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, a collection of short stories by Melissa Bank that became a huge hit in 1999, and Suburban Girl is based on two of the stories in that book. They did well to maintain most of the protagonist's character (now named Brett): her wise-beyond-her-years maturity, her immense (and proud) knowledge of literature. If nothing else, it's refreshing to see a main female character in a romantic comedy (I guess this is a comedy?) who is not a bumbling fool. She's like a heroine for any bookish girl who loves Dante and leather pants all at the same time. She's not altogether humorless, either — my writer's heart melted upon hearing Brett gush, "Don't you just love alliteration?"

To find out "The Bad" and my take on the other romantic DVD, read more

Sarah Michelle Gellar was looking very sleek in all black yesterday in NYC. We're still waiting to hear when Suburban Girl (based on A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing) is coming out. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival but we haven't heard anything else about it. Perhaps they were waiting for all the chaos with Alec Baldwin to blow over. Hopefully, they won't let it sit on the shelf much longer. I've been looking forward to seeing SMG back on the big screen in something other than a scary movie.

Source

SMG was looking fabulous at the Tribeca Film Festival where she debuted 2 of her latest films, Suburban Girl and The Air I Breathe. I am loving all the SMG sightings we are getting these days. Hopefully with these two movies on the horizon we will see a lot more of her and that adorable husband of hers, Freddie Prinze Jr. Can you all see her squeezing his hand on the carpet? SO cute. As for the two movies, Suburban Girl is based on the wonderful book, The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing and the Air I Breathe has SMG playing a pop star that gets in trouble with the mob. I can't wait to check both of these out but more importantly, I am just glad to see her out and about again. Now if we could only get her and Freddie to make some little ones already!

For lots more of SMG and her co-stars like Kevin Bacon, Andy Garcia and Brendan Fraser just read more

I'm excited about a lot of the movies premiering at this year's Tribeca Film Festival, and Suburban Girl is near the top of my list. It's based on two of the short stories from Melissa Bank's collection The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, which was one of my favorite books when it came out in 1999. It had been a while since I'd read the book, so with the movie looming, I decided to drag my old paperback off the shelf and see if the book still holds up.

And it does. Bank's books (she also wrote The Wonder Spot) are great examples of what I like to call "upscale chick lit" — well-written stories with central female characters who are intelligent, witty and unafraid to speak their minds. In Girls' Guide, the focus is Jane Rosenal, whom we first meet as a 14-year-old realizing, as she watches her brother's relationship with his girlfriend slowly disintegrate, that the quest for true love really sucks.

Jane never stops looking for love, but as she grows older she also starts trying to piece together the other components of a fulfilling life. Those interests intersect fiercely in the two stories on which Suburban Girl is based, so read more