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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
DRIFTS AWAY FROM THE ORIGINAL AT CRUCIAL POINTS., February 12, 2005
The fourth essay at converting Geneva (Gene) Stratton-Porter's most popular novel for the screen, this version conflicts markedly with the original story while yet managing to make a faithful adaptation of the book's pre-Great War era in a visually appealing film, with beautiful southern Oregon locations standing in for the author's eastern Indiana setting. Stratton-Porter is inserted into the scenario as the "Bird-Woman" of the Limberlost Swamp region, here played sensitively by Joanna Cassidy, and the naturalist writer's endeavours with camera, notebooks, and glass photographic plates is accurately rendered, even to a mention of her watercolour tinting for illustrations in a published volume of nature studies, but there are significant alterations in the characters of Elnora Comstock (Heather Fairchild) and her embittered widowed mother Kate (Annette O'Toole) that result in flaws of logic surrounding their actions. Since this product comes from Feature Films For Families, it was possibly deemed discreet to eliminate the important reference to Elnora's father's marital infidelity, but nothing is provided here to replace it in context, while the omission of the neighbouring childless couple, the Sintons, with their supportive counsel of Elnora; and of Phillip, beau of the young farm girl, are unfilled voids. The dramatic act of Kate that results in a climactic clash between mother and daughter is weakly altered and Fairchild's sporadic Valley Girl diction and mannerisms are not harmonious with O'Toole's more accurate dialect, especially since the two have lived only with each other since the girl's birth 16 years prior, but Fairchild nicely interprets Elnora's struggle to balance her desire for self-improvement with her loyalty to her mother and to their tax-endangered farm. Direction is pedestrian, and a minimalist score is nonspecific, but the sets and costumes are splendidly crafted.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointed, July 17, 2002
By A Customer
I personally did not care for the video A Girl of the Limberlost. Although Elnora did persevere through hardships at school and learned some valuable lessons, I felt the movie did not stay true to the book. For example, instead of Freckles being a person, he was an owl. And the Bird Woman was Gene Stratton Porter, the authoress of the book, just to name a few. Moreover, Elnora was not the same type of person as she was in the book. In the book, she was a well rounded girl who was intelligent, beautiful, and who had grown and matured by the hard knocks given to her by her mother. In the movie she seemed whiny and sorry for herself all the time. If you have not read the book and want a country 1900s movie that has some good morals, this is for you; however, if you are looking for the movie to have the same magic and wonder of the book, you will be sorely disappointed.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Horrible!, January 20, 2003
By A Customer
"A Girl of the Limberlost" is one of my favorite books. I was so happy when I discovered it had been made into a movie. How disappointed I was that the movie was just terrible! The movie ended in the middle of the book leaving me to say, "huh?" when the credits started to role. The movie illiminated three major characters crucial to the plot and the charm of the book and altered one character so badly that the essence of his personality was completed misinterpreted. The pacing of this movie was slow, slow, slow. I suffered through it. Save your money! It's not even worth renting. What a shame that a beautifully written book did not translate to video. A great opportunity was missed! Save your time and money!
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by Gene Stratton-Porter
by Gene Stratton Porter
by Gene Stratton Porter
DVD ~ Feature Films for Families
