Movie review: “Ethan Frome”
The wanting never ends…
Movie review: “Ethan Frome” (1993)
Liam Neeson, Patricia Arquette, Joan Allen
Director: John Madden
1 hr 39 mins
Based on the novel, Ethan Frome (1911), by Edith Wharton.
The breaking of a heart can take so long…
I watched the movie, then I read the book, then I watched the movie again (and again), it’s easier than reading the book again, but I’m going to do that too.
For my taste, the book and the movie are interchangeable. Knowing the ending doesn’t reduce the dreadful intensity of this story that gets ever more sad from beginning to end.
The love story breaks through the arid shell of real life — oh, so briefly…Ethan (Neeson) wants more, Mattie (Arquette) wants more, the viewer wants more…
Every other character in the story seems to, well, not necessarily “want” less, but to be all too righteously satisfied with less.
Except for a brief whirl of a dance scene, there are no smiles on the faces of any of the other characters who live dried up lives, and disdain the spark of love and life in Ethan and Mattie.
Doubtless, the town folk see a pitiless moral lesson in the damaged life of Ethan Frome and the love he must keep stuffed inside him.
I see a man and a woman who share forbidden love, but don’t know what to do about it, and grotesquely fail to snuff it out.
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More ways to dance
“…this wood is a full mystery again…”
“Walk this way,” my poem
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2017 All rights reserved.
My first book of poems, Writing Rainbows: Poems for Grown-Ups with 59 new poems, is for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), or free in Kindle Unlimited, click here
Thanks for checking out my website. Here’s what you’ll find:
my poetry in free verse and 5–7–5 format — nature poems, love poems, poems about grandchildren, and a spectrum of other topics — written in a way that makes it possible for you to know, as precisely as possible, what’s going on in my mind and in my imagination;
thoughtful book reviews that offer some exceptional critique of the book instead of a simple book summary;
bits of history that did and didn’t happen;
luscious examples of my love affair with words;
my reflections on the words, art, and wisdom of famous and not-so-famous people, and occasional comments on politics and human nature.
Your comments on my poems, book reviews, and other posts are welcome.
Book review:
The Four Elements: Effects and Influences
A poetry anthology
the ancient Greeks could love…
Published by Poets Collective
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Originally published at Richard Subber.
