Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning is a television movie that aired
on CTV December 14, 2008 from 7:00-10:00 p.m. This movie served as
both a prequel
and sequel, book-ending the Anne of Green Gables
miniseries trilogy, which starred Megan Follows as Anne
Shirley.
Kevin Sullivan, the executive producer, director and writer of the movie
has explained "I
wanted to create a film that would offer a rare insight into Anne Shirley's
personality. I tried to imagine
what Anne would have become if she had grown up to be an author like Montgomery
herself;
a gifted storyteller
who was haunted by her childhood her whole life."
Hannah Endicott-Douglas, a 12-year-old Toronto native plays
Anne Shirley as a child in the prequel. Barbara Hershey, Emmy and Golden-Globe
winner and Oscar nominee,
plays Anne Shirley in her 50s, looking
back on her past during World War II. Hannah Endicott-Douglas was given the
part of Anne after a three-month search, including an open casting
call on
YouTube
and cross-Canada auditions.
Her elder sister Vivien Endicott-Douglas co-stars and plays
Violetta. Rachel Blanchard plays Louisa
Thomas.
Patricia Hamilton, who appeared in the original Anne
of Green Gables miniseries trilogy, reprises the role as Rachel Lynde.
In an interview with Patricia Hamilton, she mentioned her family's involvement
in Anne of Green
Gables: The New Beginning: "We've just finished a new movie, you know...I'm
in it for a day in a wheelchair, looking like I'm 110," Hamilton says,
good-naturedly. "But my son (Ben)...plays Anne's original father." Hamilton's
ex-husband (Ben's father, Les Carlson) appeared as Mr. Lawson in
the original Anne of Green Gables.
Academy-award winner, Shirley MacLaine, plays matriarch Amelia
Thomas. Amelia Thomas is a
wealthy,
powerful and unlikable widow, who runs a prosperous lumber town in Marysville,
N.B. Kevin Sullivan issued the following statement when he announced
that Shirley MacLaine had joined
the
cast: "Shirley
MacLaine is a screen legend. To
be able to cast her unique personality in the role of Amelia Thomas promises
to bring both humour and pathos to
this production, in a grand style that only a movie star of her stature can
elicit."
The movie was filmed in Scarborough Valley, Toronto, Hamilton, Dundas and
Rockwood in Ontario, Canada from October 10 to November 15, 2007.
Please do not read my personal review of Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning
below if you prefer to avoid spoilers and haven't seen the movie yet!
SPOILERS FOLLOW:
Personal Review of Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning:
Since Anne of Green Gables: The Continuing Story had
already sent Anne Shirley to worlds unknown to the L.M.
Montgomery series, I felt ready for anything in watching Anne of Green Gables:
A New Beginning. I had the opportunity to view the latest installment of Kevin
Sullivan's Anne story at the film's premiere at the Boston Film Festival September
15, 2008.
Scan from the Boston Film Festival Program with a photo and description
of Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning.
In a far cry from the Anne of the novels, Barbara Hershey's
Anne is a working playwright in 1945 with three children: her adopted son
Dominic
from Anne
of Green Gables: A Continuing Story, along with two daughters, Frannie
and Rilla. Gilbert Blythe, sadly, died in 1942, serving as a doctor during
WWII,
and
Anne is
grieving his loss. Dominic is also serving in the Canadian WWII forces,
and Anne
is unable
to reach him through her letters. Along with these worries, Anne is struggling
with her writing and is working on a play with her friend (or something more?)
Gene Armstrong.
Anne returns to Green Gables to try to refocus and with the
intention of selling her old home. Diana Barry Wright's daughter and son-in-law
come
by to clear their old family belongings from the home and thank Anne for
letting them stay at Green Gables while times were tough for their parents.
While clearing out some of their belongings, they find a packet of letters
under the floorboards in Marilla Cuthbert's closet, including old lover
letters from John Barry and letters addressed to Anne from Anne's father.
Anne confesses that she wasn't
really an orphan when she arrived at Green Gables.
She
didn't know whether her father was alive or dead, and she never knew he
had tried to contact her.
Anne's memories take her to the past (the 1890s) where Hannah Endicott-Douglas
plays the young Anne Shirley. Her mother is a sweet and kind person, but
her
father Walter Shirley, played by Ben Carlson, is by no means a perfect
man. In a fit of anger, he drives his carriage into a river, resulting
in the
death
of
Anne's mother.
He's
sent
to prison,
and Anne is taken in by her mother's friend Louisa Thomas and her family.
Louisa's name is consistent with the Mrs. Thomas mentioned in Chapter
5 of Anne of Green Gables, the woman who took Anne in after her parents
died
in
Bolingbroke,
and before Anne was taken in my the Hammonds. In the movie, Anne struggles
to fit in with Louisa's children, particularly Violetta, who is played
by Vivien Endicott-Douglas, Hannah's sister. While in L.M. Montgomery's
novel Violetta is an imaginary friend of Anne's,
Violetta
is a real girl in the movie, and she's anything but friendly. Louisa's husband
is a doctor, who is an irresponsible drunkard, and he faces charges
for stealing. Violetta places the blame on deals he made with Anne's father,
but I wasn't
fully
clear which man was actually at
fault.
When Dr.
Thomas dies, and Louisa abandons Anne to the Bolingbroke County Poorhouse.
Anne's life in the poorhouse is bleak and harsh. She makes up stories about
her father and her past because many people recognize
his name. At the poorhouse, she's mocked for her hair, told that she is
a sinner and given cruel
punishments.
These scenes soundly establish Anne's reactions and comments
in the original Anne of
Green Gables miniseries where Anne tells Marilla "I never say
any prayers"
and Anne's reactions to both Rachel Lynde and Gilbert for making fun of
her red hair.
At the poorhouse, Anne also meets Gabriel Blake, an imprisoned man ostracized
for being different. The pair share a love of books and become friends. Anne
helps Gabriel secretly
serving
as
his
copyist.
This
period of time establishes Anne's love of words and writing. Gabriel
teaches her the meaning
of the
phrase
"kindred spirit" and helps her to escape.
After her escape, Anne runs into the Thomas family, who is on the run from
debt collectors. Violetta tricks Anne into sitting in the wrong train to
lose her, and Anne is again alone in the world. On
her way, Anne meets Nellie Parkhurst a mailwoman, who helps Anne find
the Thomas estate in Marysville, N.B. Louisa's mother Amelia Thomas, played
by Shirley MacLaine,
owns the Thomas Lumber Mill and takes her daughter and grandchildren in,
but isn't sure about Anne. Hepzibah Leach, Amelia Thomas's housekeeper,
is immediately suspicious of
Anne and
does
not want
her in the
house. Instead of living in the house, Anne is allowed to sleep in the stable.
Soon Anne and Amelia begins to trust one another, and Amelia takes her
in and confides in
the
child.
Anne's
relationship
with
Amelia
is one of the most interesting in the story.
Meanwhile, Louisa and Nellie try to use Anne to for
their benefit. Both are working to overthrow Amelia and control her lumber
mill and they know Anne can influence Amelia. Anne's father is working with
the
millworkers, and meets Anne for the first time in years, encouraging her
to go against Amelia. There's a glimpse that Anne realizes that she's sadly
being used, and all the characters are complicated characters with complex
motivations. The interplay between the narration in the "present" by
Barbara Hershey over scenes with child Anne make young Anne seem more
perceptive and were particularly useful in scenes where Hannah Endicott-Douglas
could not convey the appropriate level of turmoil and prescience. Anne chooses
to hold true to her loyalty to Amelia. She ends up at the Hammonds, and we
know the rest.
Back in 1945, Anne writes a letter to her father, explaining that she only
now received his letters. She asks to meet him, but has no reply. Then she
learns that he has died, and she really is an orphan. She learns her father
had married Louisa Thomas and that they had a son, so she begins searching
for her half-brother. She encounters adversity from the Thomas-Shirley family,
who want
to keep their hold on their money and who still resent her.
Eventually, Dominic returns home from the war with his fiancée Brigitte.
On their wedding day, Anne's brother arrives at Green Gables. Anne's
play is complete and
exceptionally moving, since her emotions from the time all went into her
work. She and
Gene celebrate the success. While Anne never meets her father, she has
a new brother in her life that she never
had
before. It's a somewhat bittersweet happy ending.
All in all, I liked the plot of this movie better than I liked the plot
in Anne3, which was centered too far from P.E.I.
At the same time, I wish circumstances were such that the books could have
been
used
to create
the
plot, and I wish
the original actors (Megan Follows, Jonathan Crombie, Schuyler Grant) were
all cast in this latest installment of Sullivan Entertainment's Anne series.
This lack of continuity with the original trilogy hurts the movie's premise.
It's hard not to imagine how much more powerful the story could have been
with
the
original
actors
in place. The only two familiar faces are Rachel Lynde and Mrs. Hammond.
Rachel Lynde, played by Patricia Hamilton, is the only actor or actress to
appear in all four parts of the Anne series. Rachel is shown only briefly
at Anne's son's wedding. She's pointed out during a conversation
and is shown
seated, in
makeup
that
truly makes
her look ancient, telling
stories as usual to Avonlea townspeople. Unfortunately, I couldn't really
hear what she was saying. The second returning cast member is Jayne Eastwood
who plays Mrs. Hammond.
I imagine how much more moving it would have been to
see Megan Follows crying prostrated on Gilbert's grave. This does not necessarily
have anything to do with
Barbara
Hershey's
capabilities as an actress,
but,
for
me,
Megan
Follows
is
Anne.
Hershey
is
not.
Hershey was quoted as saying she is entirely unfamiliar with the novels,
and
I
highly doubt that she watched the previous miniseries. Unfortunately, she did
not
even try
to be the Anne we knew and loved. It
would have been more emotional had Schuyler Grant's Diana been with Anne when
she saw
her father's letters. The few scenes with flashbacks tug at the heartstrings.
There's Gil in his uniform and Dominic running to Anne at the station where
the
edit shows only Anne's neck and the back of her head, so as not to show Follow's
face.
There's
also a clip using old footage of Colleen Dewhurst. The
musical score
was evocative of Hagood Hardy's original score, but is new. While
these aspects tug at the heartstrings, they also remind
the
viewer
what
might
have
been.
There were a few low points in the
movie. While there was plenty of convoluted material in this plot to fill
four hours without repetitions from the original Anne
trilogy, there were essentially repeats of the lily maid scene and haunted
woods scenes with different characters. Violetta is a poor version of Josie
Pye. I was not terribly impressed to see Anne in Keds and t-shirts, which
seemed
anachronistic
and
out of place,
and Mrs. Thomas's eyelashes
made me want to squirm. There was quite a bit of screechy,
melodramatic overacting that could have been toned down. Plus, was the
explosion really necessary?
And
the smoke
machine in the woods?
In comparison to the unrelated prequel book Before
Green Gables by Budge Wilson,
I feel that Sullivan's prequel film was much more creative than
the
prequel
book. While Wilson is more loyal and realistic in spelling out her back
history for Anne from what L.M. Montgomery gave us in "Anne's History," Chapter
5 of Anne
of Green Gables,
Sullivan has spun a more engaging tale. While these two additions
to Anne's legacy are unrelated, their similar
goals and release timings during the 100th anniversary of Anne's publication
couple them in my mind.
Still,
I have to wonder, who really wants to know about Anne's early life? We
know it's bad, and her happiness begins at Green Gables. Isn't that all we
need
to know? If a prequel was necessary, then wouldn't it have been more entertaining
to watch young Marilla's argument with Gilbert's father that sent her on
her path to spinsterhood, how Matthew became a shy, woman-fearing recluse
and how Rachel Lynde turned out the way she did? Why are the later books
ignored for not being cinematic? Anne's House of Dreams is wonderfully
moving and tragic. Rilla of Ingleside is the only novel I've ever read about
the Canadian homefront. Both could potentially be incredible to watch on
screen.
The high points of A New Beginning are the complexities of the characters.
Anne's history is not what it seems. Amelia and Louisa's characters are
unexpected. Anne's father is not the man you expect. You see the contrast
between who
he is
and who
Anne
wants
him to be. Sullivan has stated that:
"I began to envisage what Anne would be doing if she were actually
Montgomery herself, because Montgomery really wrote about her own childhood.
She created
Anne of Green Gables, partly due to the loneliness and estrangement that
she felt from her own father. Her father deserted her when she was a child.
Montgomery was brought up by very strict grandparents, and she created the
characters of ‘Marilla Cuthbert’ and ‘Matthew Cuthbert,’ who
were certainly loving parents. The issues with her father affected her
life well into middle age. Her father remarried and had an entirely different
family. It was out of all this that she imagined Anne as an alter-ego.
With the new film, I tell a story about Anne prior to Green Gables.
In the new film we learn that Anne made up stories all her life. Anne,
as an adult,
learns that her father is still alive. She finds a letter under the floor
boards of Green Gables. It was never revealed to anyone that her father
tried to communicate with her. It is quite an emotional story."
Kevin Sullivan does accomplish these goals in revising Anne's history.
The Anne of his miniseries is a writer and is inventive. She works at her
writing
in a way I wish L.M. Montgomery's Anne had the confidence to do. She clearly
can read people's motivations, and she convincingly act and lie, as evidenced
by her dramatic and false
apology
to
Rachel Lynde in Anne 1. It's intriguing to know how this
background explains Anne's later behavior in the original Anne
miniseries.
This new addition to Anne's story continues to add to Anne
Shirley's legacy, but could have been far more effective with the original
actors in place.
Hannah Endicott-Douglas as Anne Shirley
References
CTV
announces plans for new 'Anne of Green Gables' miniseries to air next year, The
Canadian Press (October 16, 2007)
New
'Anne' prequel planned, The StarPhoenix (October 16, 2007)
A new Anne
lands at CTV, thestar.com (October 16, 2007)
12-year-old
blond to play Anne Shirley in TV movie, by Maria Kubacki, The
Ottawa Citizen (October 16, 2007)
Anne
old story gets fresh legs By Graeme McRanor, 24 HOURS (October 16,
2007)
Anne
of Green Gables: A New Beginning starring Hannah Endicott-Douglas,
CTV's blog (October 16, 2007)
Shirley MacLaine
joins Green Gables movie, by the Canadian Press at thestar.com (October
23, 2007)
Shirley
of Greene Gables, Globe and Mail (October 24, 2007)
MacLaine
goes Green by Bill Harris, Toronto Sun (October 24, 2007)
Avonlea
star takes chilly road to Calgary: Patricia Hamilton hits city stage by
Stephen Hunt, Calgary Herald
Anne
of Green Gables: A New Beginning premieres Sunday, Dec. 14, CTV
An
Interview with Kevin Sullivan by Katrina-Kasey Wheeler, Pop
Media Examiner, October 9, 2008.
Links related to Anne 4 (external links open in
new windows):
The Official Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning website
Anne
4 News from Sullivan Entertainment
Sullivan Entertainment's
Anneofgreengables.com - This site includes lots of information
on miniseries and The
Anne of Green Gables Message Boards, including a section
on Anne 4, with production updates
The Sullivan
Boutique -
you can buy Anne miniseries items here.
IMDB -
Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning's cast and crew
Created 10.16.07. Last Updated 12.03.08.
© An L.M. Montgomery Resource Page and TickledOrange.com,
photos © Sullivan Entertainment
