Customer Reviews

Anne of Green Gables - A New Beginning

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(34)

 

 

I gave this a chance, and by that I mean I watched it before writing this review. For the record, I loved the first two Sullivan Anne adaptations. The first installment was truly magical and I return to it frequently; the beginning strain of music is always enough to make me smile. The second installment (The Sequel) wasn't quite as true to the books given the challenging task of condensing "Anne of Avonlea", "Anne of the Islands" and "Anne of Windy Poplars" into one film (the last a charming but largely uneventful series of letters from Anne to Gil in the three years between their engagement and marriage), but I consider it a worthy adaptation in that it retains the mood, magic, and characterizations of the first film and source material (though I did miss seeing Anne and Gil in college, the ensuing drama with Roy and Christine, Patty's Place, and all the additional very memorable characters). To be fair, it would have to be a television series to remain entirely true to the books.

With regard to this fourth installment...first of all, whose bright idea was it to kill off Gilbert Blythe?! That's just WRONG. That being said, there's nothing particularly awful about this film (great scenery, solid acting), though the story is convoluted and jumps around a bit much for my taste...so long as you can get over the glaring omission of the title character herself. I don't blame Sullivan for wanting to return to magical Avonlea, but he really should've changed the names and called the film something else entirely. Even "The Continuing Story" (Part 3) was tolerable and that was only because Megan Follows and Jonathan Crombie returned as Anne and Gil (their reunion scene in war-torn Europe was nearly enough to make me forgive the film's deviation from the books). If they wanted to continue the thread from Part 3, they would've been better off with a loose adaptation of "Rilla of Ingleside", the final book of the Anne stories which focuses on her children.

My single biggest problem with this story is that it re-writes history: Anne Shirley is an ORPHAN, it's a fact that shapes her indelibly. Her parents died of fever when she was a baby and she later revisits their old home (in Anne of the Islands). Anne has no memory of her parents though she loves them dearly and subsequently names two of her children after them (Walther Cuthbert and Bertha Marilla Blythe if memory serves). She does not, as this film suggests, make up the story that she is an orphan (Walter Shirley did not indirectly kill his wife in a wagon accident and become a guilt-ridden absentee father). Anne was imaginative, yes, but she was not a liar. It's also out of character and very difficult to believe that Marilla Cuthbert would ever hide Walter Shirley's letters from Anne. As it is, this installment is Anne fan fiction minus Anne and minus the magic. Perhaps someone with lesser attachment to L.M. Montgomery's Anne Shirley Blythe can appreciate "A New Beginning". Unfortunately, I could not.

BTW, this film is avalaible on Netflix. I did not purchase it.

I love Anne of Green Gables. I've read every book written by L.M. Montgomery, practically every book about L.M. Montgomery and I've seen a number of adaptations of Anne in various forms from plays to movies. This movie has nothing to do with Anne of Green Gables or L.M. Montgomery. When are the producers going to stop trying to shoehorn their own ideas for characters and plot into the Green Gables name. This isn't a horrible movie but it isn't Anne of Green Gables. Anne is an orphan that is at the very foundation of who she is as a character. Anne Shirley develops her imagination to deal with the often harsh conditions she has had to endure and she learns to thrive when she is placed in a loving environment. This movie dismisses all of that and creates something that is contrary to the spirit of Anne of Green Gables. A note to the producers, I'm not sure if you know this but L.M. Montgomery wrote a total of 8 books related directly to Anne and they were all successes and beautifully written books with endearing characters and sharp, heart felt plots, you should have used her works to create your films. You certainly didn't improve upon them. Rachel Lynde would definitely not approve.

As Anne said in this movie "Christopher Columbus!!!!!" what happened to my favorite book? ...Is Kevin Sullivan going senile? suffering from dementia? Alzheimer? If so, I am truly sorry. If not, the man deserves to be flogged! What on God's Green earth was the man thinking about????????? Destroying the foundation of Anne... and messing up with strait as an arrow Marilla! Killing off Gilbert? and where are James, Walter, Shirley, Anne (aka Nan) and Diana (the twins) and Rilla? If you're going to give Anne and Gilbert children, could you at the very least give them THEIR children?

And not only that but STEALING 2 scenes from Jane Eyre? (I believe the 1944 version with Orson Wells and Joan Fontaine): The punishment of standing on a stool for hours? and the cutting of the hair?? Oh for Pete's sakes...

I borrowed this one through NetFlix, and after suffering through... took it OFF my wishlist. I'd rather remember the Road to Avonlea series and the first 2 Anne movies (Megan Follows, Colleen Dewhurst version)

If I could give it no stars I would. This was so bad, LM Montgomery must be rolling over in her grave. Boring, cliched, ripped off the Anne books, but without grace or style. Heavy handed and smarmy. Was there a poor orphan cliche he didn't use? Oh wait, she didn't get pressed into the Navy, but that was it! The real Anne isn't perfect and so long suffering. I know because I've read the books! Too bad Sullivan can't be charged with something and barred from ever doing anything Green Gables related again. Sad, because he started out well. Not sure what happened, but it isn't pretty. Or entertaining.

The credits were good. It was such a relief to get to the end (even with fast forwarding it went on too long!)

It is absolutely horrible that they made this movie the way they did. It is a dishonor to the characters L.M. Montgomery made. I agree that she would probably be horrified at this film. Making Anne not an orphan? Killing of Gilbert? Getting rid of some of her children? I mean come on...do you have no sense of right and wrong? The third movie at least still had Gilbert in it even if it did deviate from the books, but this is too much!

I absolutely love the Anne of Green Gables series, so when I saw that Kevin Sullivan had made a new movie I was excited, although extremely skeptical - especially with a new actress playing Anne. Despite my skepticism I sat down to watch the movie with an open mind.

I don't even know where to begin when describing how terrible this movie was. First of all Gilbert is dead and Anne's father is still alive, which totally ruins the whole premise of Anne being an orphan. The flashbacks to Anne's childhood drag on and on. Many of the scenes are reminiscent of scenes from the original Anne of Green Gables. Such as her never having eaten ice cream before, one dress is very reminiscent of her blue puff sleeve dress. The scene with her standing on a stool as punishment seems to have come directly from Jane Eyre if I am remembering correctly. There are also quite a few age discrepancies...the housekeeper Hepzibah should have been dead at the end of the movie by my calculations (if Anne's father was 82 Hepzibah would have been well over 100). Rachel Lynde and Hattie King are also still alive well into their nineties. Anne's dramatic speeches were over the top, and seemed like a repeat from the other movies. Personally I don't mind if a movie deviates from a book, as long as it retains the overall spirit and feeling of the book. But this atrocity has absolutely none of Anne's characteristic spunk and personality. As I watched I couldn't wait for an ending. The wait was almost unbearable, and I was sorely tempted to either fast forward or to not finish watching.

I'm going to try to forget watching this movie, because it ruins the whole story that Lucy Montgomery created.

One positive note, the girl who plays Anne as a young girl does a good job with the acting.

Toronto-based Sullivan Productions has made a livelihood from adaptations of Canadian author L. M. Montgomery's works for the past twenty-five years. Now, I think the production company has done fine work in the past; I absolutely loved Anne of Green Gables and the first sequel to that film, Anne of Avonlea. Likewise, I really enjoyed The Road to Avonlea, the television series that was set in Anne's world and which ran for seven seasons. However, in this latest film, Sullivan has gone to the well once too often.

My first very apt reaction, while watching this film, was "Who wrote this garbage?" The answer is, none other than Kevin Sullivan himself, which I find puzzling. I don't see how he can have produced and directed such very fine adaptations of some of Maud Montgomery's novels, and then utterly trashed Maud's legacy with nonsense like this. The film totally re-writes Anne's entire back-story, present in both the earlier films and the original series of books. Hmmm, turns out that Anne was not an orphan after all before she came to Green Gables---she had an entirely different life and set of adventures, complete with uncaring absentee father.

There's no point in my going on about the many things wrong with this film, I'm just so disgusted with it. Thing is, perhaps this could have been a decent story if they hadn't tried to shoehorn it into the Anne franchise. If this had been about a totally different girl, coming from a background of adversity, I may have dredged up some interest in the tale. But---not without a thorough re-write first. The plot had some major holes and never did play out in a satisfactory manner. The entire final quarter of the film only raised a whole host of questions; the inconsistency-ridden finale was most unsatisfying. None of it, in the end, made any sense.

Now, the film is beautifully shot, and has a pleasant background score---but that was not nearly enough to overcome the negatives. Far as I'm concerned, Sullivan has spit on Montgomery's legacy---and not only that, he is guilty of writing a lousy script. I think that any fan of the Anne stories is probably going to want to watch this just out of curiosity, but I cannot recommend it in any way. I'm glad this was a rental and I didn't waste my money on buying a copy; if I had, I could not have in good conscience tried to re-sell it; I would have just tossed it in the bin. Ugh.

This weekend I purchased the dvd. I was happy to see it for $18.99 at Costco as I had the dvd in my Amazon Wish List for some time and was waiting for the price to come down. I put the movie on as soon as I got home and settled in for an evening of fun...I wish I had not purchased or watched this very long, depressing and at times badly acted addition to one of my favorite stories of all time! In truth is, this movie almost ruins the whole thing for me and to find out it is fiction and does not remain true to Lucy's writings was a real surprise. What were they thinking?

The little girl playing Anne was a very good little actress and was a close second to the original Megan Follows. Shirley MacLaine was well cast as well. Barbara Hershey should have stayed home for this one as she just did not have what it takes to carry the role(I believe it is the fault of poor story writing) Sorry Barbara, loved you in Beaches though!! :)

My anticipation was very high for this movie, now I will sell it...not even worth keeping this one.

Very disappointing movie. It's painfully slow and very boring. It just doesn't have the same magic as the beloved Anne of Avonlea/Green Gables. I think Sullivan should have stopped while they were ahead. The storyline is simply not credible and poor LM Montgomery must be turning over in her grave ...

I got this in the mail a couple days ago. I am a big "Anne of Green Gables" fan and loving all eight books by L.M. Montgomery, plus reading "Before Green Gables" when it came out, I was hoping this would be a good tale of Anne's life before coming to Green Gables. I have to say I was rather disappointed! Not only did it not follow Anne's true childhood it kept going back and forth to much, when it should've just stayed with Anne's childhood and then showed when she was older.

I also didn't like who the actor they picked to play Anne's father and how they switched so much of the story of Anne's beginnings around. I gave it 1 star because I thought Hannah Endicott-Douglas superbly splendid as the young Anne Shirley, but in no way shape or form should Barbara Hershey been allowed to play the older Anne. For one she looks nothing like her and two Megan Follows should've been brought back as the older Anne. It just didn't feel like an Anne of Green Gables movie, but some other movie that is foreign to the world and spirit of "Anne of Green Gables."

I watched this last night and being the Anne fan that I am I thought I would love it! But I didn't enjoy it at all. It didn't stick faithful to Anne's story at all for that being an orphan and made her father live. I couldn't get that wonderful warm feeling like I got from reading the books and watching the other Anne movies. Barbara Hershey shouldn't have been chosen as the older Anne and the fact that(spoiler warning) they made Gilbert die, Marilla have letters from Annes father hidden from her and that it jumped around quite a lot made it not feel like an "Anne of Green Gables" movie at all.

They should've brought Megan Follows back as Anne, and kept Gilbert Blythe alive!!! They shouldn't have rearranged Anne's story and made it look she told falsehoods about her pass. The ending should've been how with archival footage of Matthew picking Anne up from Bright River station, the ride to Green Gables and it being decided that Anne could stay at "Green Gables." I wish it would've followed L.M. Montgomerys original Anne's story or the prequel book to the "Anne of Green Gables" series "Before Green Gables" by Budge Wilson. I give it 1 out 5 stars, because I didn't like how the storyline wasn't Anne at all, but the one star is for Hannah Endicott-Douglas doing good as Anne Shirley when she felt like the spirit of Anne, but Megan Follows will always be the best as Anne.


I do wish they would've made a better version and followed the true storyline of the tale of "Anne Shirley." I am glad I didn't buy this movie at all, but rented because it would've been a waste of money! They really ruined what should've been a pleasant experience and treasure for us fans of Anne. What we're they thinking? I just wish it followed more of the novel "Before Green Gables." and had the arcival footage be when Anne first came to Bright River station, was picked up by Matthew and headed to "Green Gables." Thus wasn't the case and I guess I will have to watch the original Anne movies from the 80's and I am reading the books again and getting the full original story as it was attended.