2022, Hans Canosa (Conversations with Other Women) -- Netflix
I still read books, more often digital, usually on my phone, but still the occasional paper novel, hard or softcover. I read mostly specfic, with a bit of other varied stuff in there on occasion. As a bookseller, AJ Fikry was more of a literary reader, dismissive of most of the books Amelia Loman brings to the island in her role as a book seller for a publisher. She is marketing trade paperbacks -- generally easily read, sentimental books. I know I am doing them a disservice by generalizing, but its how the movie starts out. And, it is also the place in which the novel the movie is adapted from sits. Think Oprah's bookclub, but that reference is very very dated, and I do not have a more current one. Is there even a zeitgeist reference to reading books anymore?
Anywayz, these kinds of novels are at a level above generic romance or mystery novels, but do generally grow out of an author's love for literature. Unlike, say Train Dreams which comes from the lofty Great American Novelist place, and these authors still love the written word in ways that churned out romance novels do not. And yet, it pains me to compare, but this movie comes in, as an adaptation, not much above the place in which Hallmarkies sit.
OK, we have AJ Fikry (Kunnal Nayar, Spaceman), the bookseller in question. His wife died, but he is still tentative friends with his late wife's sister Ismay (Christina Hendricks, Good Girls) and her populist writer husband Daniel (Scott Foley, The Unit). The movie begins with the first visit to the island from Amelia, and her love for a memoir from a 98 year old first time writer. Fikry offends Amelia (Lucy Hale, Pretty Little Liars) with his opinions on such sentimental tripe, likely an experience from Zevin's own world. Later, Fikry wakes up from a drunken stupour to find his battered copy of Edgar Allen Poe's Tammerlane has gone missing. We are being led to assume Amelia disappeared with it. The crime, which is not solved, allows us to be introduced to a handful of the islanders and Fikry's "friends".
Strangely enough, the movie is not about the charms of living on an isolated, lovely Nantucket-ish island. It brings up the limitations of such, but the only real selling of this usually highly touted kind of setting is having Fikry start to jog, so we get a series of images of the various locales on the island. They are all quaint and lovely. I cannot help but compare it in my mind to the depiction of the island, and island life, in Widow's Bay which gives us an island that wants to be what this one is, but isn't quite there yet.
It is definitely a "storied life" in that the movie presents itself in vignettes. Next up from meeting Amelia and the theft of his book is the arrival of Maya, the child in a basket left in his store. The next morning, the mother washes up on the beach. Grumpy still-grieving Fikry decides to adopt Maya, becoming subject to the sentimental tripe he so loathes.
Maya (Blaire Brown, The Big Leap) grows up.
Its funny, but never before have I noticed how much I am prone to longer opener paragraphs than the mid and ending ones. The previous "chapter" is depicted by scenes of May running up and down the stairs of the bookstore, to AJ's apartment above. AJ is still in contact with Amelia, and he is helped in the raising of Maya by his sister-in-law and friend, police chief Lambiase. AJ decides to woo Amelia after her engagement pans out, and against her better judgement (she lives on the mainland) they start up a relationship. Then AJ gets sick and ... well, dies. Its years later by then, Maya is a teen, Daniel has been killed in an accident, Ismay begins a relationship with Lambiase (David Arquette, Scream 3), who always pined for her, and Maya has turned out to be a lovely writer.
Its pablum, but tentatively well-done oatmeal? More accurately, its authentically made breakfast food, but lacking in much of the ways of flavour. The actors obviously like being in this movie, but there is not much that challenges anyone here. For example, AJ is depicted as "curmudgeonly" but he's generally a nice guy, and we only see him being crotchety with customers. Everyone else, except self-aggrandizing Daniel, is just nice. I shouldn't complain, as I like nice people, but as I mentioned off the top, the movie is not that far above a Hallmarkie, and at times, even feels like its directed in that manner.
Oh, and the movie does explain the mystery of Tammerlane's disappearance. You see, asshole Daniel, prone to sleeping with his fans, had gotten Maya's mother pregnant and she approached Ismay asking for help. Despite Daniel being a popular author, he squandered all their money, so Ismay stole the book from drunken AJ, to give to the mother, to just... go.. away. It doesn't work out as no one with buy the book, and the mother returns to the island, to dump Maya in the bookstore, and to kill herself. Ismay has lived all these years with the shame of this story, and only reveals the truth after Lambiase finds the book hidden in a closet. Its a surprising bit of extraneous drama that probably says something about the mid-range trade paperback industry?
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