I've been on a bit of an Anne of Green Gables kick for the last
couple of months, ever since I pulled out the first two Kevin Sullivan
miniseries on a whim and watched them. We own the third, but it arrived
completely mangled, and we never got around to going to our local PBS
affiliate and requesting a new copy. So I decided to refresh my memory
of the third installment courtesy of Netflix. I remembered Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story
fairly well, but it had been nearly a decade since I'd watched it. I'm
glad I saw it again, but I really don't think we're missing out on much
by not owning it. This isn't a miniseries likely to get a lot of repeat
viewings.
In reading up a bit on this production, which came out
in 2000, I learned that Kevin Sullivan was in the midst of a dispute
with the family of series author L. M. Montgomery. One might think that
under such circumstances, he wouldn't make another movie with Anne as
the subject, but he went ahead and did it, evidently free to use
Montgomery's characters but not allowed to replicate any of her plots.
Hence, making a faithful adaptation was impossible. Nonetheless,
Sullivan and co-writer Laurie Pearson took enormous liberties with the
story and characters, so that even fans of the miniseries who've never
read the books might object to the drastic shift in tone.
The
first two miniseries have their share of darkness, but for the most part
they are fairly light and funny and thoroughly heartwarming and
life-affirming. The Continuing Story, by contrast, is pretty
dreary right from the get-go. Within minutes, Anne (Megan Follows), who
has been away on a teaching position with an orphanage, beholds Green
Gables and nearly gets into a fight with its cranky owner, who is
content to let the house of Anne's happiest years fall into squalor. As
usual, we see far too little of Gilbert (Jonathan Crombie), and while
he's clearly devoted to Anne, he spends most of the movie seeming
exhausted and depressed. Similarly, Diana (Schuyler Grant), who has
grown up into a proper lady rather like her mother, fears her marriage
to Fred (Greg Spottiswood) is falling apart. He's surly all the time,
right up until he sneaks off to join his comrades in World War I,
leaving Gilbert to explain things to Diana - and to find his own sense
of duty stirred.
Probably my favorite portion of the movie
occurs when not-yet-married Anne and Gilbert are living in New York.
Initially, I thought they were co-habitating, which seemed a little odd
for early 20th-century devout Christians, but a throwaway line from
Gilbert explains that they have separate apartments. Gilbert longs to
make a difference as a doctor, while his superiors seem keen to limit
his skills to healing the prestigious members of society. Anne gets an
in with a publishing company and strikes up a friendship with suave Jack
Garrison (Cameron Daddo), a bestselling adventure novelist, who insists
that her work has potential and might actually reach a decent audience
if his name were attached to it. There are hints of romance between
these two from Jack's end, but Anne keeps very firm boundaries. It's
nice to see her actively pursuing her writing dreams, which she abandons
in the novels by the time she and Gilbert are married, and there's some
humor and spunk in the way she deals with her curmudgeonly boss and his
rather persnickety assistant.
In the books, by the time World
War I hits, Anne and Gilbert are around 50 years old. But this movie
takes place only five years after Anne and Gilbert's engagement, which
puts them in their mid-20s. Montgomery does write in some detail about
the war in Rilla of Ingleside, but it's from the home front
perspective, and neither Anne nor Gilbert ever come anywhere near a
combat situation. But here, Gilbert is guilted into signing on as a
trauma surgeon, and Anne decides to spend the bulk of the war traipsing
around Europe searching for him. So instead of idyllic Avonlea, we spend
most of the movie in one war zone or another, as Anne absurdly searches
for Gilbert, making a nuisance of herself as often as not. In the
process, she manages to track down Fred and get tangled up with Jack
again, which leads to a fulfilling writing job but also a dangerous
mission. Moreover, despite her obsession with finding Gilbert, she grows
somewhat uncomfortably close to both Fred and Jack during this time.
Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea
are both family films, but I wouldn't say there's much here to hold the
interest of children. There are basically no juvenile characters, with
the exception of Jack's infant son, and the movie has a very adult,
bleak tone. War is raging, so there is violence and peril as well as
hints of marital discord and extramarital tomfoolery. Rarely do we get
to see Anne's sparkling smile; Follows still plays Anne well, but this
Anne spends so much of her time depressed, she's not a very uplifting
character. All the old faces are fine for what they have to work with,
but the writers have bathed everyone in disillusionment, making Anne
feel like Ring-tormented Frodo, Avonlea like the polluted Shire. I
suppose it's somewhat interesting to put Anne in such a different
setting, but I don't think most Anne fans really want heart-racing
adventure. They'd prefer the simple pleasures and mishaps Montgomery
details in most of her books.
To that end, they may find
themselves more drawn to the Special Feature, which is a rather extended
promo for the episode of the television series Road to Avonlea
in which Marilla dies and Green Gables falls into the hands of
land-grubbing neighbor Mr. Harrison. I wish the whole episode had just
been included; the clips are wonderful, quite touching and occasionally
funny despite the dark circumstances. There's little humor to be found
in The Continuing Story, whether it's Fred glowering at the world
or Anne in hysterics as she asks every nurse in France if she's seen
her husband. If you're a fan of Sullivan's previous Anne projects,
you'll probably want to check this out, but don't expect the same level
of satisfaction. You may also want to look into Montgomery's later
books, especially Anne's House of Dreams, to see how Montgomery covered this period of Anne's life. For me, The Continuing Story is an interesting but dreary side trip, and I don't think I'll ever be able to think of it on the same level as Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea.
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