Anna and the French Kiss - Stephanie Perkins

Before the review, as a warning, I’m starting to feel like my rating system is completely arbitrary. I tend to judge works individually rather than in comparison to anything, and the “10” scale slides every time. ALSO. Most of my reviews are going to contain SPOILERS. I mean, I won’t spell out the play-by-play of the plot, but I address the works in their entireties most of the time. So don’t be surprised!

Initial Rating: 8/10

Yes, it’s a Young Adult, “chick-flick-y” book. I got a bit tired of classics after the semester, so the books I’ve been reading haven’t exactly been found in Barnes and Noble’s Literature section. BUT. Trust me. I don’t care if you’re a guy or girl; if you’re looking for a similar breather from the tough stuff, this was an excellent choice.

The thing that struck me most about the novel is that Anna could have so easily been inside my own brain. Stephanie Perkins captures the essence of teen girl PERFECTLY; the second-guessings, the rash judgments, the impressions, the reactions. Anna’s pattern of thought was just so incredibly realistic; even though I recognize that I am quite different from the book’s protagonist, I felt, upon entering her narrative, that I was coming home to something familiar and fresh. To top it off, the humor, mostly stemming from Anna’s thoughts and world view, was sublime. I literally laughed out loud, which is something I always note in a book.

It was the realism of the novel altogether that really made it stand out from the majority of YA “realistic” fiction out there now. The romantic atmosphere and tension was not, to sound slightly redundant/ contradictory, romanticized. Etienne is not the cookie cutout male protagonist/ love interest, and the hesitant, cautious, analytic mind games that play out between him and Anna over the course of the story recall real life “does s/he like me or not?!” drama. Their eventual get-together was a little too drawn out for my tastes. Sometimes their miscommunications at EVERY little step of their budding relationship got a bit annoying, but I suppose even that could be realistic in some ways.

Generally, the characters, particularly amongst Anna’s primary friend group, had perfect interactions. They were all surprisingly well-developed and complex characters all things considered, and only the “mean kids” seemed to be blank stereotypes to me. However, if the city, Paris, could be a character, then Perkins makes up for it. I’ve been there and wasn’t too impressed, but the way that Anna and her friends take on the City of Lights makes me want to return and re-evaluate. The atmosphere she creates within the city is excellent, and I love how she explores the definition of home.

Although it is so realistic and well-done with the levels she does take us to, I sometimes wish she would have pushed even farther, to even deeper levels of understanding. Then again, I’m not sure how much deeper you can get before you enter pseudo-literature territory. Anna and the French Kiss doesn’t try to be anything it’s not, and it is one pleasant and surprising piece of YA fiction. It has a great balance of elements, and the self-awareness Anna gains over the course of the story makes for a great, unique, and fresh coming-of-age tale. All in all, I guess that’s what I loved about this book. Even though the plot could have been taken out of a textbook for teen fiction (“girl goes to boarding school in Paris, meets hot guy, blah blah blah”), it felt completely and wholly original. It was a great starter to summer reading!

Jane Eyre (the film)

Initial Grade: 8.5/10

Jane Eyre has to be one of my all-time favorite classics, and, after seeing the film version, I cannot describe how relieved I was. I really feel like it did the novel much justice. It played up the elements that I love about the novel perfectly; it was a perfect mashup of tortured romance, drama, and elements of suspense. The atmosphere of Thornfield Hall is picturesque and perfect. They did a great job of capturing the essence of rural England at the time.

Amidst a dark story and setting, shining brightest of all was the protagonist. Mia Wasikowska embodied a superb Jane. Her haunted look combined with a spark of defiance captured the essence of the character perfectly, shining particularly during her earlier interactions with Rochester. I believed every word that came out of her mouth. She effortlessly managed to pull us into the emotional story. Rochester himself was pretty excellent. I feel that Michael Fassbender for the most part did a great job. He had all the parts to an excellent Rochester there: the witty words, the tortured darkness, the genuine love, but there was something missing in the way he seamed it all together.

           

The few things I felt were lacking are explained primarily through Jane’s nature and narrations in the novel and may have been hard to translate onto the screen. For example, it seems hard to believe that Jane would accept Rochester’s flimsy explanations after the attack on Richard Mason and the initial fire. I loved the almost cruel moments of suspense at night in Thornfield; the mystery and frights excellently broke up the endless drama, but I feel like they could have played up Bertha and her story even more.

It may seem silly, but I felt like laughing at Rochester’s call through the wind at the end, even though it does happen in the novel and is obviously important. My fellow movie-goer was beginning to wonder if Jane was actually crazy as she just takes off into the hills. If supernatural/relgious aspects had been more prevalent throughout the film, it may have been less strange; at the same time, I feel like the film does build up a good case for a dialogue between Jane’s imagination and supernatural elements. I suppose in that case, it was fitting to do the scene as they did, but I guess I’m a bit of a novel purist. I also feel like Jane’s relationship with the Rivers family, and her refusal to St. John, could have been a little more developed. Same goes for the significance of Helen Burns, and Jane’s time at Lowood overall. But I realize that, at two hours and SO much that they did cover in-depth, that might have been pushing it.

Overall, I thought it was an engaging and beautiful adaptation. It may not have been 100% perfect, but, as a fan of a novel, it’s impossible for any movie adaptation to be.

Intro

Hello! So, like most of the world, I love all aspects of artistic culture. As an English major, books are pretty much my life, but I can just as easily lose myself in worlds of film, television, and music, as well. I figured instead of blindly reading/ watching/ listening, that I would try to engage myself a bit more. By keeping this blog, hopefully I'll be able to sort out my own opinions and share them with others.


I'm not exactly an impeccable critic, and I am not a picky person to begin with, so most of these will not be particularly harsh. As the blog title suggests, it's more of a first impressions/ opinions kind of deal. Feel free to comment and agree/disagree as much as you'd like! I'm trying to get better at this whole cultural conversation thing.


I won't be reviewing EVERYTHING I read or see, of course, but I'll try to update as regularly as I can with a variety of types and genres.

And with that, my initial post is complete!

-Kelsey