Movie Monday is a feature here on my blog, in which I’m rambling about movies I’ve watched lately.
This week I watched an adaptation to one of my all time favorite books, Between Shades of Gray.
Ashes in the Snow
Ashes in the Snow was one of the movies I was really looking forward to see this year, even though I didn’t have the highest expectations about it.
It is an adaptation to Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys. I loved the book so much that now it is one of the best books I’ve read, but when it comes to movie, it wasn’t that good.
The story was mostly true to the novel, even though some things were changed or left out. The story was shaking, but it was shown in a really boring way.
Here, I said it, and I’ll say it again: I was bored most of the time while watching.
If I haven’t read the book, and wasn’t emotionally attached to the story, I would probably stop watching after 20 minutes.
It is a shame, really, and it made me think why is that, and then it came to me: the book is beautiful because of the writing. There were so many sentences that stayed with me until today, and I read the book four years ago.
What the movie was missing was the narrator’s voice. Those beautiful words Lina said while she was telling her story.
And they could have easily be in the story, if the makers decided to put them.
Just like the movie The Fault in our Stars was narrated by Hazel, Ashes in the Snow should have been narrated by Lina.
All of my favorite quotes from the book would be on the screen that way.
I don’t want to sound mean, but I have to say this: I think that the main actress who played Lina was too old for her part. She is 27, and with all that make up she looked like 34, not 17 as her character was.
I mean, I get that war and conditions Lina was in would not be easy on anyone, but it was still a miss, in my opinion.
In the end, I want to say I love how they changed the name of the story to Ashes in the Snow. I think it is so much better then the original one.
I would recommend the book to everyone, because it is beautiful and it tells an important story.
As for the movie, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Book Dust Magic 