Anne Of Green Gables Didn't Need a New Beginning; Stick With the Old One

For as long as I can remember, I’ve loved Anne Shirley, the protagonist of the beloved L. M. Montgomery series, and I’m equally swept away by Kevin Sullivan’s flawless adaptation of the first book in miniseries form. Almost as good is his sequel, Anne of Avonlea, though it takes considerably more liberties with the story. However, his third and fourth Anne films are a complete departure from the books, and they threaten to sap away much of the charm of his own first two installments.

The fourth, and presumably final, chapter in Sullivan’s Anne saga is Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning. Right off the bat, he alienates most of his female audience by killing off Gilbert, that stalwart doctor who waited so patiently for Anne to accept his regard for her, setting millions of hearts aflutter in the process. Sullivan’s series is set a couple of decades after Montgomery’s, so while the books show us a middle-aged Anne and Gilbert watching their sons go off to fight in World War I, here we have a middle-aged Gilbert dying against the backdrop of World War II. Seemingly, he has been killed in action, though the movie barely bothers to mention why Anne is on her own. It all feels very glossed over.

Another problem is that the cast is almost entirely unfamiliar. Aside from brief glimpses of Jonathan Crombie and Colleen Dewhurst as Anne remembers Gilbert and Marilla and a quick appearance by Patricia Hamilton as Rachel Lynde, who’s still chugging along well into her 90s, no actors from the original miniseries remain, and few characters do. Anne is now portrayed by Barbara Hershey, as well as Hannah Endicott-Douglas in flashbacks to Anne’s youth. The present finds Anne back in Avonlea, hoping to sell Green Gables, but first she wants to enjoy its quietude once more as she tries to work out the kinks in a play she’s writing for a community theater production. When she stumbles upon an old letter sent to Marilla by her father, it drastically changes the direction of her play and sends her in search of some definitive answers about her past.

That’s where my biggest problem with the movie lies. Here, we find out that Anne lived happily with her parents until the age of nine or so, and then her mother died in a tragic accident and her father headed for the hills. As a coping mechanism, she made up a story about both of her parents succumbing to illness in her infancy.

Um... What?

I’m sorry, this is just too great a leap for this purist, and it cheapens Anne of Green Gables immeasurably if we’re supposed to believe that Anne just kept up this ruse indefinitely. It renders her not so much imaginative as an egregious liar. And Green Gables is such a glorious haven for Anne in large part because she never had a place she could truly call home. If she had a normal, happy childhood for nine years, then Matthew and Marilla’s impact is greatly reduced. The whole thing just puts a sour taste in my mouth.

I couldn’t connect much with the older, melancholy Anne with writer’s block and a boatload of daddy issues. Much more engaging were the flashbacks, and Endicott-Douglas was very believable as a younger Anne, capturing her feisty spirit and tendency toward the overdramatic wonderfully. Sullivan gives her several exciting adventures, including a sojourn in a horrific homeless shelter of sorts that is largely a rip-off of The Count of Monte Cristo. But her subsequent immersion in the Thomas family falls apart, and there’s a definite disconnect at the end, with her abandonment a little too abrupt and complete to make much sense.

I will always love Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea, and I thank Sullivan for making them. But he should have quit while he was ahead.

The BBC's Anne of Avonlea Sticks Closer to the Book Than Kevin Sullivan's Miniseries

A long-time fan of Anne of Green Gables, I grew up watching the Kevin Sullivan miniseries based on the book and its sequel, based on the second, third and fourth books in L. M. Montgomery’s series. Those two adaptations have been firmly lodged in my mind for so long that I have a hard time thinking of them as anything other than definitive. Nonetheless, while Sullivan’s Anne of Green Gables is very true to the book, Anne of Avonlea takes all sorts of liberties, angering some purists. So when I discovered that the BBC had done a miniseries of Anne of Avonlea in the 1970s, I was eager to check it out.

Anne of Avonlea, as adapted by Elaine Morgan and directed by Joan Craft, is 350 minutes long and divided into six sections (or two DVDs). The first four are drawn from the book Anne of Avonlea, while the last two are from Anne of the Island. Upon reflection, I would have to say that of the five books in which Anne is the central character, Anne of Avonlea is probably the least eventful. It’s pleasant because we spend the whole time in a beloved locale, full of familiar characters like Marilla Cuthbert, Rachel Lynde, Diana Barry and Gilbert Blythe. But with Anne happily settled into village life and most of the major disasters of her impetuous youth behind her, there’s just not a lot of drama there.

I was all too aware of that throughout the first half of this miniseries. It was enjoyable enough, but it just seemed to move very slowly, especially because this is a very basic production that almost feels more like a play. The stirring score and gorgeous cinematography that contributed so much to the atmosphere of the Sullivan productions are absent here, making the whole thing seem quite drab. Additionally, if you’re familiar with the movies but not the books, as is the case with my mom, you’ll spend the first half of the miniseries comparing the actors from the two productions and wondering who all these new characters are that Sullivan skipped right over.

Rowdy Davy (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and mousy Dora Keith (Annabelle Lanyon), the orphaned children of Marilla’s cousin, are two of the most prominent newbies. Marilla (Barbara Hamilton) and Anne (Kim Braden) take the children in, and while Dora doesn’t cause much trouble, Davy is a bundle of angsty energy, fueled by his fear of abandonment and his jealousy that Anne is so fond of Paul Irving (Keith Steven), an eccentric, poetic pupil of hers. Of the three, Lyndhurst is the best actor, doing an effective job of conveying Davy’s emotional state and sounding more convincingly Canadian than the other two. Lanyon doesn’t sound Canadian at all, and it makes me wonder why that wasn’t a dealbreaker during casting. Maybe they figured she could learn; as it is, her British accent stands out jarringly whenever she speaks. Claire Lewis, who plays a young housekeeper nicknamed Charlotte IV, has a similar problem.

The adults are more consistent, and David Garfield as Mr. Harrison, the cranky neighbor with whom Anne develops a bond, is especially entertaining. Hazel Bainbridge is a kindly Mrs. Blythe, and Kathleen Byron does a good job of demonstrating the ethereality of Miss Lavendar Lewis. I also loved Susan Field in the role of Charlotte E. Morgan, a famous authoress Anne adores; she appears in just one small segment of the miniseries, but it’s one of the comedic and inspirational high points. Toward the end of the miniseries, we’re introduced to Philippa Gordon (Sabina Franklyn), a worldly student who boards with Anne and Jane (Zuleika Robson) at college, as well as her beau Jonas Blake (David Troughton), a humble clergyman. I thought that both of these characters came across very well, with the contrast between them accentuated effectively. I was less impressed with Anthony Forrest, who failed to elicit a flutter from me as Anne’s sophisticated college boyfriend, Roy Gardiner, even though this production’s Gilbert (Christopher Blake) is nothing like the heartthrob Jonathan Crombie is. He’s sweet but awkward in a Neville Longbottomish sort of way, and it’s a little easier to understand how Anne could have failed to fall madly in love with him years ago.

The performances of Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst are so iconic that I have a hard time adjusting to Braden and Hamilton, but I tried to remind myself that this adaptation came first and that nobody who watched it in the 1970s had such preconceived notions. Comparisons aside, each does a good job with the material. Braden comes off as passionate but less moony than Follows, while Hamilton has a permanent pout on her face that makes me think of Narnia’s Puddleglum. I miss the crinkle around Dewhurst’s eyes, but I do enjoy Hamilton’s dowdy take on the character. As Rachel Lynde, Madge Ryan is every bit as shrill and annoying as Patricia Hamilton, who happens to be Barbara Hamltion’s sister, but she lacks Hamilton’s impeccable comic timing.

The first half of the miniseries is comfortable but poky. If you love these characters already, it’s not a bad way to spend three hours. But the second half is much more interesting. It’s in this portion that adulthood really starts creeping up on Anne. Along with going to college, she receives marriage proposals from four different men, two of whom are laughably unsuitable, reminding me of Mr. Collins in Pride and Prejudice. On the more somber side of things, she suffers the loss of a childhood friend to illness, an experience that will haunt her all the more when Gilbert nearly succumbs to typhoid fever. The realization of how much Gilbert means to her finally dawns in a sweet scene that brings her some answers to the questions she had about her parents, but it isn’t until the very end of the miniseries that she makes Gilbert aware of this. It’s such a momentous occasion, I do think that Morgan and Craft could have given us a bit more; the tiny concluding scene hardly seems sufficient and certainly isn’t as eye-mistingly tender as Sullivan’s.

So my loyalties remain with Sullivan, his unfortunate third installment aside. But if you felt the Avonlea gang got the short end of the stick under his watch, you can get your fill of Davy, Dora, Paul, Mr. Harrison and the rest in the BBC version of Anne of Avonlea.

Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story Takes Anne in Desolate Directions

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.

Anne's Off for Adventure, But There's No Place Like Avonlea

After writing my review of Anne of Green Gables last week, I felt an urge to pull out Anne of Avonlea and watch that for the first time in years. The urge struck, oddly enough, around 11:30 at night, but I watched the second installment of Anne’s adventures without so much as a nod of the head. My rapt attention did not fade until the film ended after 3:00. When I finally succumbed to sleep, I had sweet dreams indeed.

I admit that due to the more youthful exploits chronicled in Anne of Green Gables, not to mention the idyllic locale and the presence of more beloved characters, especially Matthew, I prefer the original and return to it more often. But Anne of Avonlea is a beautiful work in its own right, showing us an Anne (Megan Follows) now teetering on the edge of adulthood and wishing that everything in her life could simply remain unchanged – a sentiment with which I can readily identify.

But numerous changes are in store for Anne, whether she welcomes them or not. Her best friend Diana (Schuyler Grant) accepts a marriage proposal from a young man whom Anne considers a most unsuitable suitor. “He’s very good,” Anne complains to an exasperated Marilla (Colleen Dewhurst), explaining that she would prefer a man who could be wicked if he wanted to be. Even more distressing than her changing relationship with Diana, however, are the affections of the steadfast Gilbert Blythe (Jonathan Crombie), who confesses what the audience has known all along: that he has loved her for as long as he can remember. Gilbert’s devotion to Anne is heartbreaking as she is convinced that an engagement to her old chum would simply not satisfy her adventurous whims.

What would satisfy them, for the time being at least, is the teaching position offered by her former instructor Miss Stacey (Marilyn Lightstone) at a prestigious school for girls in a town dominated by the aristocratic Pringle family. The numerous Pringles she encounters upon her arrival prove Anne’s greatest stumbling block, though icy headmistress Katherine Brooke (Rosemary Dunsmore) doesn’t do much to make her reception warmer. Here in this school setting, Anne must muster her deepest reserves of ingenuity to win over her defiant students. Her one kindred spirit, a girl named Emmeline Harris (Genevieve Appleton), is pulled out of school after a scuffle with Jen (Susannah Hoffman), the prissiest Pringle of all, and Anne must undertake a quest to become Emmeline’s personal tutor.

While I still am most enthralled by the goings-on in Avonlea, Anne’s new placement affords her many opportunities for excitement and gives her charm its greatest challenge yet. Emmeline is a winning new addition to the cast of characters, as are the members of her immediate family: her crusty grandmother (Wendy Hiller), timid aunt Pauline (Kate Lynch) and emotionally distant but soon-to-be-smitten father Morgan (Frank Converse). While Anne faces a host of hurdles in winning the approval of so many antagonistic townspeople, her greatest challenge comes when she actually succeeds and is forced to choose between a glamorous new life or the humble home she left behind.

With the exception of Richard Farnsworth, all the major supporting cast members who so enriched the first film are back in the second, though we see them far less than we’d like to. In spite of a number of amusing incidents later in the film, I find the beginning of the movie the funniest, punctuated by such landmark events as Anne winning the grand prize in a contest she didn’t enter and accidentally selling Rachel Lynde’s (Patricia Hamilton) cow to Gilbert’s father. Still, this is Anne’s time for self-discovery, and her lengthy absence only makes us appreciate Avonlea all the more when she returns after a year of hard work. Most of all, I think, we appreciate Gilbert, who in spite of his long absences from the screen provides the emotional core of the film. His earnestness and loyalty earn him a top slot in my list of all-time best fictional beaus, and Anne’s inevitable realization of her love for him, though initially devastating, ultimately leads to the most satisfying of conclusions.

While this is still a movie that can be appreciated by younger viewers, I would say the target audience is older this time. It is especially appropriate for viewers in their late adolescence or close friends or relatives of someone that age who are beginning to feel the pangs of empty nest syndrome. Anne of Avonlea is a story about change, but it also carries the message that the most important things remain constant, and in such turbulent times as one’s late teens always are, that is a very heartening reminder.

Anne With an "E" for Extraordinary

When I discovered that I would be working on Halloween this year, I wanted to come up with a bookish costume such as would be suitable for someone working in a bookstore. October 30 arrived and I still hadn’t gotten around to figuring something out, but luckily for me I happened to have several items of clothing stashed away that, together, made me into the perfect Anne of Green Gables. For a finishing touch, I got some temporary dye and colored my hair red, then put it into twin braids. The costume was a hit, though I was a bit embarrassed when I realized I was the only one who had come to work in costume. No matter. It was an opportunity to reacquaint myself with one of my favorite literary characters, the irrepressible Anne Shirley. She is also the subject of one of the most delightful – and faithful – film adaptations of a book that I have ever seen, and after Halloween we had to pull it out and watch it again.

When I was younger, my two cousins would come over and spend the night with my brother and me. Sometimes we spent the whole night together and sometimes Shawn and Benjamin went off on their own to put their potion-making powers to use while Kristen and I spent the night amongst pearler beads and paint-by-numbers. But no matter what, we almost always put on Anne of Green Gables shortly after their arrival and switched to Anne of Avonlea when the former ended. We rarely watched much of them, but for seven hours they provided a comforting backdrop to our nocturnal activities.

Megan Follows turns in a magnificent portrayal of Anne (“with an ‘e’”), an eccentric orphan who comes to live with siblings Matthew (Richard Farnsworth) and Marilla (Colleen Dewhurst) Cuthbert by mistake when they request a boy to help out with the family farm. She has a great flair for the melodramatic, insisting on speaking the most elegant words she can think of with the most desperate intonation she can muster. Her whimsy does not entirely meet with the stern and practical Marilla’s approval, but she charms the quiet and gentle Matthew from the start, easing her transition into Marilla’s good graces in spite of the vocal misgivings of busybody neighbor Rachel Lynde (Patricia Hamilton). No one in the community knows quiet what to make of her, but she soon finds acceptance and a much-longed-for “bosom friend.”

Diana Barry (Schuyler Grant) is as timid and feminine as Anne is outspoken and tomboyish, but they form an unbreakable bond and learn a bit from each other as well. Anne inspires Diana to do things she once would have thought too daring while learning from Diana the virtues of restraint. Her primary education, however, comes from Marilla, who keeps a strong guiding hand on her adopted daughter, amused by some of her antics but also insistent that she learn to be respectful. We see too little of Matthew in the movie, but when he shows up he is marvelously kind and his near lack of words stands in comical contrast to Anne’s unending stream of them. Of all the unique supporting characters in the film – and the book – he stands out as my clear favorite.

The other fellow who grabs our attention is Gilbert Blythe (Jonathan Crombie), a dashing young man who makes the practically fatal mistake of intoning Anne’s red hair while trying to get her attention during her first day at school. From then on, he is on her naughty list, even though he takes the blame when she smashes a slate over his head, apologizes profusely to her after class and continues to treat her with nothing but kindness in the ensuing years. Gilbert is a true gentleman, and it is in the matter of her interaction with him that I find Anne’s fiery temper most frustrating. The chorus of the Bryan Adams song Right Here Waiting for You always comes to mind when I think of Gilbert, so patient, so gallant, trying again and again to win the favor of a girl he greatly admires but inadvertently insulted. When Anne finally begins to come around, it is a joyous thing indeed, though her growing feelings of affection do not find true resolution until Anne of Avonlea.

There are many things about this film that appeal. Anne is such an entrancing heroine, all the more so for her frequent foibles. From dying her hair green to mistakenly getting Diana drunk – an act which earns her a lengthy separation from her most beloved friend, Anne always seems to be getting into the most ridiculous of messes. But she is also a girl of great intelligence, ranking high in all her class activities and impressing the community with her literary and theatrical gifts. She is surrounded by well-developed supporting characters with quirks of their own, and they add to the emotional resonance and entertainment of the film.

Another asset is the utter G-ratedness of this film. There is nothing in it that a parent would find objectionable, while Anne’s misadventures provide enough amusement to entrance the youngest viewers, especially during the first half. Anne of Green Gables is a remnant of a more innocent era, with a setting to match. The filmmakers depict turn-of-the-century Prince Edward Island as an arcadian wonderland whose simple beauty approaches that of the Shire, my literary landscape of choice. We are as enchanted as Anne during her first exposure to the landmarks that will become so familiar in years to come. The wistful soundtrack, heavy with strings, evokes a longing for a return to such times as depicted in the film.

Not that Anne’s world is free of heartache. Her early life was full of it, and when tragedy rears its ugly head in Green Gables it is all the more painful because this has become her haven. For a film so full of light and delight, it ends with what must be the most devastating event of Anne’s young life. But such is the power of the story and its characters that this scene is almost as crippling to the audience as to Anne herself. Though the movie has a three-and-a-half-hour running time, it never seems to drag. It was my favorite film of that length until Fellowship of the Ring, one that I don’t mind watching repeatedly and treasuring anew each time. If you haven’t ever experienced it, give the movie a try and let yourself fall in love with Anne of Green Gables for the first – but probably not the last – time.