I am not a movie critic but if I was then I would say that the Movie version of “Beloved” was ok. When I say ok it’s more between great and decent. To be honest I don’t really like to watch movies from 2006 and below just because my eyes have become accustomed to a type of definition. Now with that being said I won’t knock the movie because of the effects because I realize that technology wasn’t as advanced as it is now. I will say though that the movie worked within their limits as far as trying to capture on film a novel such as Beloved. The only problem (besides the definition), is some actors and the fact that the directors or whoever failed to allow the viewers to view some background knowledge about the people at sweet home which in a sense takes away a huge part of the novel. I also felt that the directors focused too much on the eerie nature of the novel, as it wasn’t the whole point or theme of the novel.
For me personally, the movie adaptation of the novel failed, with the casting of the actors for the roles of the characters from the book. The first example of this being Danny Glover. When I envisioned Paul D., I thought of a young handsome and muscular type of man (no offense to Danny Glover). In the movie Danny Glover seemed a little stiff and not fluid to me. In the novel Paul D. was smooth and he talked in a way that made people want to listen to him. Paul D. was basically good with the ladies, but from reading the body language of Danny Glover I did not see that. An example of this would be the scene in which, Paul D. met Seethe. If I was Seethe and Danny was talking to me the way he did I would seem uninterested and really bored. The other actor That I found a problem with was the actor playing Denver. I felt that her acting was weak and did not particularly fit the role of Denver. Denver was a character that has been through much emotional and Physiological despair being a child in a haunted house and basically being isolated from the outside world. The actor playing Denver’s acting was lackluster and showed no emotion for someone playing the character Denver. The scenes that I really had a problem with from this actor were the one when Paul D. came into the home and she started crying and the scene when Beloved was introduced. I thought in these scenes her acting was really poor.
The Directors did not find some way to inform the viewers on the past of the characters at sweet home such as Paul D. and Seethe. This simple neglect really hurt the movie adaptation because so much of the novel was about the past and embracing it so that one may be able to move on to the future. The task of simply having characters have a flashback of their past would have suffice. If the directors would have filled those gaps the, it would have been easier for the audience to feel pathos for Seethe and Paul D.
The eriee nature of the novel I feel was emphasized more than it should have. There were things that added, to that horror movie type of feel from the spooky music, to the scenes of poltergeists, the insanity of Seethe and the acting of Beloved. I felt that this side of the novel should have been toned down a bit and should only be there so show the pain that the characters are going thorough and their mental deterioration.
Aside from the Problems named above the movie was great. I give the directors credit because the novel Beloved was in fact hard to showcase on the big screen. The movie adaptation worked within its limits and really is all that it could do. There are just some things in a novel that a movie cannot do and try as they might the directors could not change that such as being inside the heads of different characters and the stream of consciousness of the three characters within the novel. Like I said the directors tried and in their efforts they did okay which is all you can ask for, and which is what the movie adaptation showed.
