Book to Movie | Like Dandelion Dust

At the end of last year, Like Dandelion Dust, popular Christian author Karen Kingsbury's novel, was adapted for the big screen. In January 2011 it made it to DVD format, hitting the shelves in hundreds of stores across the country.

The story is complex. Wendy Porter made a selfless decision when she gave up her baby for adoption while her husband Rip was in prison for domestic violence against her. A few years later, Wendy tells a now-free Rip about their son. As he comes to realize that Wendy forged his signature on the adoption papers, Rip persuades Wendy that it is in their best interests to bring their son home. Jack and Molly Campbell, adoptive parents of young Joey, are shocked to hear that the court is in favor of returning their son to his birth parents, especially to his abusive father. In an effort to save their son, Jack and Molly do everything possible to avoid the court's ruling.

Like Dandelion Dust is an adoption nightmare, to say the least. One of my favorite Karen Kingsbury tales, the book shows in a forgiving, redemptive sort of way that, no matter how hard we try, God is ultimately the one we must rely on. I love the characters of Like Dandelion Dust because each grows in his or her own way throughout the story. The plot especially brings up the question of how far parents are willing to go to save their child.

I was excited to see the movie after seeing a couple of great previews. There seems to be, in my eyes, two distinctive downsides of Christian films: either the acting is horrendous or the storyline borders on cheesy (i.e. in the end everyone comes to Christ and suddenly life is all roses, which is not often the case). Like Dandelion Dust, pleasantly, is neither.

The unfortunate thing about Like Dandelion Dust is that nearly all of the Christian themes have been extracted from the original plot. In the book, each character comes to see, little by little, that only God can forgive, save, and strengthen. The movie seems to have lost all of that, besides a few mentions of church and missions trips. So instead of a story of God's love and forgiveness, it is a story of  human's desperation and hopelessness.

As the movie stands alone, I enjoy it because it is a telling and thought-provoking piece. But still, the book Like Dandelion Dust holds much more, and I wish the movie would have been more true to it.

Book to Movie: A Return to Narnia

Though The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader opened in theaters last week, I didn't have the opportunity to see it until today. I sat down with mixed feelings, one part of me excited because...well, it's Narnia...and the other part nervous because of negative reviews. But I had to see for myself, of course, and, frankly, the first two were wonderful.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was fantastic, and, though Prince Caspian deviated from C.S. Lewis' original masterpiece, it was still an exciting sequel. And, I knew, that even if The Voyage of the Dawn Treader moved away from the book, it would still be good too.

There were, of course, things I liked and things I didn't like about the movie. First of all, the 3D is really a rip-off. Unneeded, and, perhaps, not as good as plain 'ol 2D that we're used too. Aside from that, Prince Caspian's accent change was ridiculous. No, I didn't particularly like his inital accent in Prince Caspian, but a sudden switch to a British accent seemed strange. Maybe he just became more "refined" as King of Narnia. Also, Carrie Underwood's song as the credits roll, something about how we can be kings and queens "if we just believe." Well, they just threw C.S. Lewis out the window with that.



my version of the book



So, I have one paragraph of complaints. But, I could devote many more to praises. Though some things are changed from the book, I still feel that the original meaning is the same. The last scene with Aslan, Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace at the edge of Aslan's country nearly brought me to tears. Eustace's change, though not as elaborant as in the book, is wonderful. Reepicheep's face time (though his voice has changed, too) is marvelous. If anything, perhaps the movie can draw people in to read the real thing.

I still like the book best, and maybe that is just because of C.S. Lewis' wonderful writing style and the unadapted allegory of Christianity. I know the movies have been tamed down because of that, but, the Truth is the Truth. Hopefully some can, as Aslan so cleverly says at the end of the book, after he tells the children they must return to their own world, "This was the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there." And that is why I love The Chronicles of Narnia so much.