I thought it was a good intepretation...very erotic! It moved right along with the novel. And most of the lines were directly from the book. EXCEPT, "Whatchu doin Janie?" "Watchin God." LOL!! I thought that was kinda awkward.
Nevertheless, I loved Halle as Janie. She was believable. I also liked that Hurston's sense of humor came across exactly as written in the book, ie. Eatonville's gossipy women, the Storefront joke sessions with the townspeople (especially when Mayor Starks insulted Janie about how she cut the tobacco plug and her retaliation).
I didn't like some of the omissions from the book though:
1. In the book, Mayor Starks actually accused Janie of putting "roots" on him and poisoning him to death. He told all of the townspeople and eventually stopped speaking to Janie and would only eat the lunch and dinner prepared by other women in the town. This lead up to him saying, "I hope thunder and lightening kill you dead." Without that, the movie made Mayor Starks' emotions towards Janie to seem excessively cruel and unreasonable. I interpreted Mayor Starks as a man who truly loved Janie but couldn't "keep up." So his jealousy turned to rage. And then it worsened when his paranoia made him think she was murdering him.
2. Tea Cake actually won all of Janie's money back after he initially lost it gambling. (if memory serves me correctly) I guess they just wanted to show some negative aspect to Tea Cake in the film without showing that he actually hit her too, according to the book. (which I suppose was customary during that time!?!)
3. They took Janie's murder trial completely out of the movie. I think the trial and the fact that people actually turned against her and accused her of murdering Tea Cake showed more of Janie's strength and final discovery of Self.
Questions:
- I wonder if there will be any Emmy nods?
- Terrance Howard...Micheal Ealy, rising stars?
- Is there a new breed of African American actors? So many familiar faces. Hello, Lackawanna Blues!?