**SPOILER ALERT**
I wanted to write about some thoughts I had in contemplating
the ending of the book, “The Circle” to the upcoming movie. Going forward with
this post, I will be writing about the ending to the book and what I thought of
it, so if you haven’t finished the book yet, please refrain from reading this
post until you have done so!
Professor Bertsch talked about having difficulty imagining
Emma Watson as Mae, and I have to agree. Knowing the type of characters Emma
Watson normally plays, Mae seems to be a character Watson would not be jumping
at to portray. Watson is known for being an advocate for female rights and
empowerment, which is why choosing Mae as a character to emanate is so
surprising to me.
At the end of the book, Mae, to the utter horror and dismay
of many readers, becomes, as my roommate calls it, “brainwashed” by the Circle.
She goes against everything she has learned about the company’s secrets and
embraces their plans for future watching and all seeing, turning on friends who
chose to confide in her. This does not seem typical of a female empowering
role…
So my next thought is, what if the movie ending is different
from the book ending? This has happened in multiple book –to- film adaptations,
so it wouldn’t be a complete shocker. However, I think the way the book ends is
essential to its core theme and message, so it would be a shame to change it.
Although it wouldn’t be the first time a film has been changed to fit a more
“positive” message instead of leaving it on such a dark note. We saw this when
watching Blade Runner, how there were
different endings, leaving the story to have a much more positive tone than
initially intended.
The movie
adaption comes out on Thursday, and by the time I am writing this, no movie
reviews have really been written. I did find an article that talks about Dave
Eggers, the author of “The Circle” who helped co-write the movie with help of
fellow co-writer and director, James Ponsoldt, where the fate of the movie’s
end is briefly discussed.
“MJ [Interviewer]: Will the ending be as bleak as
the one in the book?
DE: [Laughs.] It does not
turn the ending around and make it happy—but it's different. Adaptations are a
corollary, but without being dutiful.”
The
rest of the article can be found here: http://www.motherjones.com/media/2017/04/circle-movie-film-dave-eggers-james-ponsoldt-clive-thompson
So
we will have to wait and see if the movie does the book justice. Will Emma
Watson surprise us all portraying Mae? And will the ending make us hate Mae as
much as we did in the book? Movies are typically not as good as the book
themselves, but maybe The Circle cast
and execution will be enough to make us change our minds and prove us wrong. The Circle comes out in a few short
days, and I eagerly await to see how the book will be executed on the silver
screen.
No comments:
Post a Comment