BuzzSugar

Buzz In: What Books Do You Think Would Make Good Movies?

BuzzSugar — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 08:30:08 -0700

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?

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Two Straight-to-DVD Romances, One Long Night

BuzzSugar — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:30:43 -0800

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
The Bad:
With the exception of endearing quips like those, the dialogue is shockingly bad. For this alone, I can see why Suburban Girl was not theatrically released. Some people have also criticized the relationship between Brett and Archie, claiming Sarah Michele Gellar and Alec Baldwin have zero chemistry, though I don't share this opinion. Their relationship is supposed to feel awkward at times, seeing as Archie is nearly the same age as Brett's dad. Sure, there are moments when their interactions feel forced, and they beat the whole "stop treating me like your daughter!" thing over our heads ad nauseum. But I was more or less okay with it.
Bottom line:
I completely understand why this film went straight to DVD but it's not without its charms, and I fervently hope to see characters like Brett on the big screen someday. Also, the movie's soundtrack could make those of similarly billed "chick flicks" weep with shame. It's cute enough if you're a huge fan of these actors.

I Could Never Be Your Woman
The Description:
"Just as Rosie (Pfeiffer) strikes up a romance with a handsome younger man (Paul Rudd), her daughter Izzie (Saorise Ronan) falls in love for the first time - and Mother Nature (Tracey Ullman) can't resist the temptation to meddle."
The Good:
Pfeiffer and Rudd are surprisingly cute together - to the point where I deeply wished the movie were solely about their relationship. Instead, there are a dozen different things smushed into this one film, and it all gets muddled and (especially in the scenes featuring an ethereal-looking Tracey Ullman as "Mother Nature") super weird. There are vague strains of female empowerment and some commentary on the culture of plastic surgery and degradation of women's bodies in Hollywood, but it all gets diluted amidst the rest of the storylines. Still, on some level, I appreciate the attempt to shed light on a culture in which little girls make their Barbies ridicule each others' bodies.
The Bad:
There's a romantic story involving Pfeiffer's character as The Hot Older Woman (at 40) and Rudd's character as The Funny Younger Man (at 29). But then there's the daughter's coming-of-age stuff and her own shrieky problems with boys at school. And there's Rosie's career troubles and her struggles with self-image within Hollywood. Finally, topping off this messy pile is the smart-mouthed Mother Nature who comes around to criticize Rosie's every move. It's just perplexing, and while there are some funny lines - and Rudd is as adorable as you've ever seen him - it's not actually a fun movie.
Bottom line:
The actors are great, but they can't save this overloaded, bizarre and not especially pleasurable story.

Book Review: The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing

BuzzSugar — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:00:17 -0700

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

"My Old Man" and "The Worst Thing a Suburban Girl Could Imagine" show Jane at her conflicted and endearing best. She's in her 20s, trying to succeed in publishing, when she meets Archie Knox, a powerful executive at a rival firm. She's drawn to him, but in a matter-of-fact way; there's no hearts-and-flowers romance, just a series of dinner meetings and sudden advances. Not even half his age, she longs to impress him, to be the sharp, brilliant woman he's been looking for. "I stored up stories to tell him," Jane says at one point. "I practiced them in my head." She wants to hold her own with him, but at every turn, he gives her a new challenge - his alcoholism, his playboy past, his unexpected difficulties in bed.

In the second of the stories, "The Worst Thing a Suburban Girl Could Imagine," the Archie story dovetails with that of the other important man in Jane's life: her father. After a brief breakup, Jane is back with Archie, much to her family's disappointment, and she's also in the process of choosing to ruin her career rather than please her boss, a sort of Miranda Priestly-lite. Then she finds out her father is dying of leukemia, which snaps everything into perspective - but not in the way you'd imagine. I've reread that story several times now, and there are a few lines that always give me chills.

I'm glad the movie zeroed in on those two stories; they have a coherent arc, and they show off the strongest parts of Jane (called Brett in the movie) as a character. But the other stories in Girls' Guide are also worth a read, including the hilarious final chapter in which Jane decides to abandon her natural sarcasm and try out the dating techniques in a book called How to Meet and Marry Mr. Right. She imagines the authors perched on her shoulder, telling her when to talk and what to say ("Keep him guessing!" "Let him pay!"). In the end, of course, she figures out it's all ridiculous, and she leaves us with a pure, simple revelation that sums up Jane's whole story: "I realize that I can say whatever I want now. And I do."

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