Friday, April 11, 2014

Infidelity and Movie Adaptations

Because I'd never seen any of Woody Allen's movies before, I put several of them on my Netflix list and watched them back to back: Annie Hall, Match Point, Midnight in Paris.

I also recently finished reading The Last Letter From Your Lover, and The Emperor's Children. I'm about 1/4 of the way through Anna Karenina. (You can follow me on Goodreads here.)

On Sunday, we finally watched the Leonardo DiCaprio version of The Great Gatsby.

All of these pieces of art were lovely (except Annie Hall, I hated Annie Hall), but after the credits rolled on Gatsby, I just felt this overwhelming sadness.

I'm tired of watching movies and reading stories about infidelity. Do we, as a culture, have this idea that staying with your partner, fulfilling your vows, loving one person until death do you part is boring? I don't think it has to be boring. I don't think it has to be cheesy or sappy either, ahem, Nicholas Sparks.

It makes me sad that, off the top of my head, the only happily married book or movie characters I can think of are Arthur and Molly Weasley in the Harry Potter series.

I know that books and movies are a means of escaping your own life for a bit, but why do we want so badly to escape into lives that are even more messed up than our own? What is the appeal of escaping into someone else's life, when theirs is in shambles from their poor decisions or the decisions of their significant other?

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My friend Sara and I went to see Divergent yesterday. We both really enjoyed it, despite both of us having major problems with/reservations about the book (though I hear many of my problems with it get answered in the third book; I just got book two from the library). Shailene Woodley was a much better actress than I expected her to be, and made the character of Tris much more likable than she was in the book. We agreed that it was probably one of the best book-to-movie adaptations we'd seen, with so little detail left out.

On the way back home, we were talking about Woodley's next role in The Fault in Our Stars, which is coming out this summer. I really, really want to see it. Because the author was involved in the production, I figure he couldn't ruin his own book by making the movie not as good, right? Sara didn't want to see it at all, because she loved the book so much and couldn't bear the thought of the movie not living up to the book.

Which makes sense. It's a good, hard read. I've read it twice, and both times Matt has walked in on me clutching the book to my chest and sobbing. It makes you think about life, and death, and it seems like a daunting task to take it from words into pictures. I just hope they can do justice to such a beautiful book.

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Have you seen Divergent? What is your favorite book-to-movie adaptation? Are there any topics that you're tired of reading about?

12 comments

  1. I think that there are so many books or movies about "messed up" situations because they provide a stronger outlet to sort through and question our own emotions, ethics, and thoughts. I get bored with the infidelity issues when they are so over saturated with sex. Like you saw, I wasn't really digging Divergent, but I'm still going to read the rest and see the movie (on dvd). The Baz Luhrman Great Gatsby was pretty but wasn't the best adaptation - I prefer the Robert Redford one. I can't wait to see The Fault In Our Stars, like you, I was sobbing the entire way through it. If the movie is good, the book will always be there for us :) I really love the newest Jane Eyre adaptation and I also liked what they did the The Help. Ok I just wrote you a novel....

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    1. Maybe it's not so much that I have a problem with books/movies including infidelity — I'm not naive, I know people cheat on each other — but that the last few things I've seen about it, the characters have been so smug in their trapped-in-a-bad-marriage-this-person-will-fulfill-me-and-be-my-true-romance <3 <3 crap. No! If you (characters) hadn't let your relationship fall into disrepair, you wouldn't need to look elsewhere!

      I hadn't seen the Robert Redford "Gatsby." I'll add it to my Netflix list! I did love what they did with The Help. And of course, I can't wait for the third Hunger Games. :)

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  2. allie- i couldn't agree more about how frustrating it is when movies create drama with infidelity - makes me squirm to watch johnny cash or any other movie where cheating is seen as not only okay, but romantic. ew. and as for divergent, haven't read or seen it, but i've heard such mixed things i'm not sure whether to stay away or read it ASAP...

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    1. Absolutely! You hit the nail on the head for me. It's not so much that it happens, but that it's romanticized.

      I don't know what to tell you about Divergent. The only reason I picked it up was because it was my book club's pick for April. While it's definitely a quick read and fast-paced enough to be interesting, I hated that it had a lot of parallels to the Hunger Games and Harry Potter. It's definitely not as good as either of those series, at least after the first book. Starting book two tonight, will update. :)

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  3. I completely agree with you on pop culture's fascination with infidelity- why can't we cheer for a happy marriage, for once? I'm not hugely impressed with Divergent- haven't seen the movie yet and I've only read the first book, and though I do want to finish the series, I just am not so impressed with the premise. Which leads me to- I am *so over* dystopian fiction. The Hunger Games got it right (and those movies did it even better than the books) so let's stop and move on now. I'm apprehensive about TFiOS but I'm going to see it anyway because I can't NOT see it, you know?

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    1. My grandma e-mailed me to tell me about two authors who write mysteries, whose main characters are in happy relationships: Faye Kellerman and C.J. Box. I haven't read either of them, so I have no basis to recommend, but may be worth checking out.

      I can see getting tired of the dystopian trend! The bar has been set so high with Hunger Games and some of the older ones (Giver, Brave New World, Handmaid's Tale, etc.) that it's hard to read ones that are obviously trying to get in on the popularity without having the same writing skills.

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  4. I just wrote this really long comment and I think it didn't go through, lol. I think that books and movies deal with infidelity, star-crossed lovers, and lost love a lot because it's more interesting than the day to day "boy meets girl" story that most of us experience. It's only been in the last century that people could marry who they wanted for love alone, and before that, it was more about survival, money, religion, etc. So many authors have written about love and infidelity for years.

    Someone mentioned _Jane Eyre_, and in that book, Jane falls in love with Rochester, who is still married to the madwoman in the attic, Bertha. It's only after Bertha dies in the fire that also blinds Rochester that Jane is finally free to marry him. Jean Rhys wrote _Wide Sargasso Sea_, which tells Bertha's story and isn't very flattering to Rochester.

    And in _The Great Gatsby_, he fell in love with Daisy before she was married. She didn't choose Gatsby, probably because of his lack of money and status, so he spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it.

    Also, Woody Allen has had his share of controversy and was recently called out by his adopted daughter in the New York Times. That story is awful and a huge mess in real life.

    I think there are good marriages depicted in books and movies. I was trying to think of some current examples: Robert and Cora in "Downton Abbey" (even though he had a dalliance with a maid, he ended it and does seem to really love Cora.) And Sybil and Branson and Mary and Matthew, though those ended tragically.

    And I recently watched "Top of the Lake," which is all about violence and rape. The main character rekindles her relationship with her high school boyfriend, and they have a normal and healthy relationship. I think it's the only one depicted in the show and it also portrays their sexual relationship as healthy and normal, in contrast to the rest of the show.

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    1. I guess the way I look at it is, if you're going to marry for survival or money (for example, assuming you have the freedom to choose who you're marrying) … you made your bed, now you have to lie in it? Marriage is a choice (for most people). Cheating on your partner is a choice. And they could just as easily choose to work on their relationship, and they choose not to, and that bothers me.

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  5. You make a good point about infidelity! It's something that bugs me SO MUCH in real life - yet I don't even think twice about it when it's on tv or in movies. Something to think about!
    xo,
    Al
    www.sparklesandstilettos.com

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    1. Exactly! Goes back to that question, does art imitate life, or does life imitate art? And are we okay with life becoming more like art?

      Thanks for commenting!

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  6. I am with you! I'm so sick of reading / watching unhappy married couples - who cheat, sneak around and then are happier in the end because of it. What I wish it showed was the likeliness for that 'perfect' relationship to end in cheating too.

    I think its way more exciting (and adventurous) to try and make it work with one man, say, for your whole life.

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    1. VERY good point. The whole once-a-cheater-always-a-cheater thing never seems to apply when it involves a happily-ever-after fantasy!

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