Day 102: Saturday, February 21 - Ella Enchanted Revisited

The incident happened in 2004, right after Mike and I had gotten married. Being the poor newlyweds that we were, we went to the dollar theater. I decided we were going to see Ella Enchanted, since I had recently read the book and loved it. Aside from the characters names and places, the script had nothing to do with the actual storyline of the book and was very poorly acted. Boy, will I ever live that down?! To this day, whenever we see a bad movie, Mike remarks, "At least it wasn't Ella Enchanted." As if I didn't already sit through his snarky comments the entire duration of that movie! (I apologize for those of you who actually liked that movie, but a musical rendition of a great children's book, containing Anne Hathaway no less, will never make my list of top ten movies of all time.)

Unfortunately, tonight I was stuck, by choice, revisiting that fateful night. (At least this time Mike wasn't there giving me "the look" after every cheesy comment.)


I will never understand why writers/directors/producers choose to purposefully ruin a great, let alone famous and bestselling, book. Anne of Green Gables - loved the movie and the book, but neither are the same. Twilight - at least it stuck to the plot. The acting put it over the edge. The Polar Express - If they didn't add all the extra stuff, we would have maybe a 30 minute movie. The Tale of Despereaux - let's not even go there! I think all has something to do with the fact that I feel connected to my books, and I might take these changes in the movies a little too personally.

Hugh Dancy apparently has a penchant for acting in movies that are ghastly versions of books. Confessions of a Shopaholic had nothing to do with the actual storyline. Once again, we have characters names as the only connection. Not even the places or were the same! (The book takes place in London. The movie, New York.) They tried to cram two books into one movie, changed relationships, changed jobs, made manequins talk, etc. The high fashion clothes didn't even make up for it. When will I ever learn that movies are never like the actual book? They say "based on the book" for a reason. I blame Jerry Bruckheimer. Jerry, I love many of your shows and movies, but this one might ruin my desire to see movies in the future.