Battle #5 book vs. movie - a dog's purpose

A Dog's Purpose is W. Bruce Cameron's novel that got extremely popular after its movie adaptation in 2017 directed by Lesse Hallström. Toby's (or Bailey's) story has already stolen hearts of millions of people.

This movie tells about a dog who lives through its different incarnations. Once, it's a golden retriever adopted by little Ethan and his family. After death it reborns as a German shepard working with policemen. In every life the dog learns something useful. It is taught, for instance, to love, to fulfill people's expectations and to care of its masters. 

Both the movie and the book show unbelievably funny dog's perception to the world surrounding it. The author show how dog's brain might work and it is one of the loveliest things ever. The movie is devided to four equally or similarly long parts, each one for each incarnation. However, the dog's lives were changed and only two of them are the same as they are in the book. Producers didn't include the first incarnation and devided Ellie's one in two different. In the book, we don't get such a regularity, so thay the first and the last incarnetion are much shorter than the rest.

These two pieces are very touching, not only because of the bond between human and animal, but also limitless love affecting a reader or a spectator. It's really good that the cast isn't extremely well-known, what makes us feel that the dog's story is the most important. Nonetheless, I can't leave the acting without any comment. In my opinion, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, playing Maya, needs a lot of appreciation beacuse of her cuteness and affection she gave her doggie. Also KJ Apa and Dennis Quaid, both starring as Ethan, showed real ease to create bond with Bailey. But... Did I mention that the dogs which appeared in the movie are absolutely adorable? All of them seem fluffy and lovely, I could definitely own one of them!

A Dog's Purpose is an interesting and amazingly beautiful story of people, dogs and love. It can be watched or read by anyone and I can guarantee that every person will admire something in it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner is...

A DOG'S PURPOSE by LASSE HALLSTRÖM

Battle #4 book vs. movie - molly's game

Few years ago the whole world heard about Molly Bloom - a poker princess who was organising some gambling games. She decided to describe her story in a book called Molly's Game. In 2017 Aaron Sorkin decided to adapt it into a movie.

After an accident, Molly Bloom goes to Los Angeles to make her dreams about the big world come true. However, the reality isn't a dream and she has to face something that she would never expect. Her new boss makes her organise poker games and after some time she realizes that there's a possibility of earning a lot of money on it. Later Molly starts her own poker business, but at the same time she becomes the FBI's target...

Story of Molly's life in the poker world wasn't changed at all. However, her personal life isn't described at all because of focusing on the  main character's trial. We aren't informed about Molly's relationships - this aspect of her life was completely deleted. However, instead of it we receive something that wasn't in the book. We get to know about Molly's financial problems, the trial, her motivations and writing a book. As Molly's Game is her autobiography, it was highly intersting to see how it was written and changed through different events. What's more, I think that the movie showed how Molly's past affected her future, I felt that she was living in her brothers' shadow the whole time. In the book she realized that she might be important, she was in the limelight in the poker world. In the movie, the main character emphasised that all the events had happened in reality, however the book reminded me more of a fictional story not a biography.

I have to admit that I absolutely loved Jessica Chastain's acting. She was a perfect person for this role - she looked like a smart businesswoman, who knows what she wants and will do anything to acheive it. Unfortunately, I sometimes didn't like her costumes, in my opinion some of them simply didn't suit her. An unexpectaed solution was to hire Kevin Costner to play Molly's father. He did it well, as he always does, but I couldn't focus on his charater without seeing this actor in other movies. I also adored the shots - the director knew what to show and some of them were minimalistic but exposed everything that was necessary.

The movie shows Molly's professional  life as it really was. It tells about an incredible woman who conquered a men's world and faced the consequences with all responsibility and honour. She ended up as she did, but her story will stay inspiring and unforgettable.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner is...

MOLLY'S GAME by MOLLY BLOOM

Battle #3 BOOK vs. MOVIE -13 reasons why

Jay Asher wrote a book called 13 reasons why, which caused shock and controversies among young people and their parents. In 2017, Brian Yorkey created a series that was based on the book. The second season of it has been already released this year, however only the first one has something in common with book. Let's compare these two pieces!

It's a story of a boy named Clay, who finds a mysterious box in front of his house. It turns out that the box contains 7 tapes. They show 13 reasons why Hannah, Clay's secret crush, decided to commit a suicide. One side of the tape is dedicated to each person person (reason) and reciving the box means that Clay is one of the reasons. The boy is shocked because he would have never thought that he might have taken part in Hannah's death...

The series is definitely different from the book and it is very visible for a person who had read the book before watching. Almost everything is changed - time, order of reasons and method of Hannah's suicide. In the book, Clay is the narrator and he walks around the city to visit places that Hannah is talking about. It takes him (probably) one night and he tells us only thing that he sees, hears and remembers. However, in series (that contains 13 episodes - one episode for one side of tape) one episode's duration is even few days! There are much more plot twists and the plot itself is much more complicated and mysterious. Other characters plan something, try to do everything so that other people won't get to know about their participation in Hannah's depression and suicide.

Actors are young, not very well-known people so that we can see something fresh and new in them. Their emotions are so realistic and after all of it, the personages will always have their faces for me. Their personalities are well created so that they are someone more than just fictional characters. I loved Tony's way of being, his influence on the story is a lot further than it was in the book. Moreover, Christian Navarro, who starred as Tony is so handsome! I also enjoyed Ross Butler's acting as Zach, but generally everyone did an amazing job - thanks to Dylan Minnette I started to like (or tolerate) Clay.

The series shows a believable image of an american high school and life there. It shows that living is not easy and sometimes we should think twice before we do something, because it might hurt someone. Some scenes are brutal, but dramatically real so that you will feel all possible emotions of the world!

Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner is...

THIRTEEN REASONS WHY by BRIAN YORKEY

Battle #2 BOOK vs. MOVIE - Everything everything

Everything everything is a book written by Nicola Yoon in 2015 and published in Poland in 2016. In 2017 Stella Meghie decided to make a film based on this novel.

Everything everything is story of Madeline, who is allergic to almost the whole world. She lives in closed, sterile clean house with her mom and has daily visits from Carla, the nurse and her best friend. One day Maddy sees HIM. His name is Ollie and he is an unusual, misterious boy, wearing black clothes and who lives in the neighbourhood. They start to write emails and make calls to each other. But what will happen if Ollie becomes part of Madeline's safe, white world? Will they be able to risk everything?

I have been waiting for this film since I first heard about the adaptation. This book by Nicola Yoon is definitely amazing and touching. At first I wasn't sure if actors were well chosen. Personally, I would search for someone new, not popular young stars. However, Nick Robinson (known from Jurrassic World and The Fifth Wave) as Ollie is the same as I imagined him. Generally I prefer his look when he had short hair, but in this film, with longer hair, he looks wild, mysterious and he's opposite of what Maddie knows. We see him as Maddy did - ideal but hurt, loving but mysterious. In the beggining the biggest problem for me was Amandla Stenberg (known from The Hunger Games - she was little Rue). In my eyes she wasn't Maddy and I felt sometimes she acted a bit unconvincingly, especially when she went outside. However, Nick and Amandla, as Ollie and Maddy, have good chemistry althought other characters aren't noticeable at times. At the same time Maddy and Ollie live in their own world and other people don't exist.

Of course, some things were changed in film, producers can't avoid it. However I need to say that the movie is beautiful, as is the book. The best thing in the film is the camera work. Nothing more, nothing less, we see everything we should. Also the music is well fitted and the whole movie is as it should be. It sometimes reminds me of a fairytale that the viewer/reader doesn't want to finish. We don't want to hear "Happily ever after", we want to keep watching the movie as the story of main characters is so fascinating that you never want it to come to an end. You will cry, you will laugh and you will fall in LOVE and totally ship Maddy and Ollie's relationship.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner is...

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING by NICOLA YOON

Battle #1 BOOK vs. MOVIE - The Book Thief

The Book Thief is a novel written by Markus Zusak in 2005. It's unique and unpredictable. It's about love, friendship and war. And, of course, books. In 2013 Brian Percival directed adaptation of this novel. Today I'm going to compare this book and film.

The Book Thief is touching story of little girl, Liesel Meminger, who goes to Molching to her new family - Rosa and Hans Hubermann. Her life is difficult, she lived through tragical events - including her brother's death. Now she has to keep on living in new city, in new family. But Liesel has also her secret. On her brother's funeral she stole her first book. Since this event, stealing books will be her guilty pleasure. Books and friendship will be her hopes during World War II.

I wrote in a book review that my favourite character was Max. After watching the film, I like him more. The actor, Ben Schnetzer, acted really convincingly. Also Sophie Nelisse, who played Liesel, was great. She looks so innocently, like little girl in the middle of brutal war. During watching the film, I thought that all actors were created for their roles.

I was a bit disappointed with the narrator - it was simply a man's voice and I thought that The Death will be shown in some way. 

Lots of things were changed in the film. There weren't as many stolen books as in the novel. Some scenes were added or deleted, but it made logical totality. One of the most touching scenes - when Liesel found Max in a Jew procession - was deleted and that made me a bit annoyed. Hans Hubermann's and Liesel's hatred to Hitler was shown differently, but their courage was still the same. 

In my opinion, this adaptation is really good and it's simply worth seeing. It doesn't matter if you read the book - the book thief's story is always beautiful and I'm sure that I will watch and read it many times more.

I think that this book wouldn't be the same without the film. All characters have actors' faces and we remember every detail. But for now...

Ladies and Gentlemen, the winner is...

THE BOOK THIEF by MARKUS ZUSAK