homespun13

I loved the 1985/1987 TV adaptation of "Anne of Green Gables" and "Anne of Avonlea". I expected a similar experience, with perhaps some new technology, although the 1980s adaptation was so perfect in my view that it was a difficult act to follow, but I was willing to give it a try. I started watching this series several times, but found it rather difficult to get used to. There are some features I definitely liked - candlelit scenes, the interior of the Green Gables farmhouse, I even got used to the new actors. However, this series is NOTHING like the cheerful, wholesome, feel-good series with Megan Follows, Colleen Dewhurst, and Richard Farnsworth. This is a dark, depressing tale. Anne is an unpleasant busybody, there is really absolutely NOTHING endearing about her. And the plot lines! This is the "woke version", the rewriting of history as it never was, depressing beyond endurance. It gets especially bad in Season 2, which I was not able to finish, I figured I want upbeat entertainment, not to be depressed and smothered with misery and unhappiness. This series focuses on only the negative, without anything to offset the feeling of gloom. I happily stopped after S2 E9. I plan on rewatching the most delightful 1985/1987 version of Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea. I've seen it probably more than 50 times and will gladly rewatch it over and over again. Anne with an E delivers a nice title but in every other way is beyond disappointing.

Czech film makers seem to prefer dark stories of human misery, weakness, and unhappiness. They make such pictures rather well, but it seems to be the only genre that they produce. This movie is true to this general mold. It's a story of a family that consists of the parents and teenage son and daughter. They seem to be caught in a web of hopelessness and despair, and there is pathetically little in their lives to give them joy. Their problems seem ordinary enough, but it's their attitudes of apathy that predicts that whatever the outcome, they will be unhappy. Only the son finds a brief moment of happiness with a stripper, but the viewer realizes that the boy is too naive to anticipate the course that relationship must take. I can find no fault with the movie other than its depressing message, which seems to be that "life sucks." The acting and the cinematography support well this general premise. The movie is well made and for this reason worth seeing. I just wish it was more upbeat, giving at least a glimmer of a "happy end".

This movie was probably meant for a very specific audience, one that I do not belong to. Reading these reviews here, it seems the movie was appreciated by professional dancers. I once considered myself a dance, though certainly not a professional, but I still found this movie very VERY boring. I thought that the star - Patrick Swayze - could carry any movie and could do no wrong. Well, apparently even Patrick Swayze needs some substance to make a movie a hit. I have seen other low budget films and being low budget does not necessarily mean the movie is bad. I don't think low budget is this movie's problem. This movie appeals to a very specific and narrowly defined public. It's definitely not aimed at the "average viewer". If you are not a professional dancer, or one who appreciates their world, you will probably find this movie as boring and soulless as I did.