About Me

My photo
My most recent single release - "My True North" - is now available on Bandcamp. Open my profile and click on "audio clip".

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Re-Discovering A Treasure

Although I'd intended to mention who was born play Jefferson Kyle Kidd if/when News of the World was ever made into a film, when I published my blog post about the Paulette Giles novel in December 2018, it slipped my mind. I am seriously bummed because Tom Hanks was who I'd envisioned while reading that exceptional book. But, I have no way to prove my prescience.  

 Reflections From The Bell Curve: Discovering A New Treasure

However, given the quality of the recent film adaptation, I quickly scuttled my disappointment about not mentioning Hanks in the post above. The film is an equal to Giles's poetic treasure. Not only is Hanks predictably excellent, the young actress who plays Johanna is a revelation, the cinematography depicting Reconstruction era Texas is unimprovable, and the screenwriter and/or director had the good sense to lift some of the dialogue right from the book. Don't miss this movie.

And make sure you also take the time to read the book, preferably before watching the film. Then, tell me who else - besides Harrison Ford, my second casting choice - could have reasonably been picked to play Kidd aside from the always reliable Tom Hanks.   


2 comments:

  1. Thanks for the super recommendation. I have it on reserve from the library. They also have the DVD which I will review after reading the book, my preferred order. I also just got the Julia Glass book. So much to look forward to! (Never end a sentence with a preposition - but I did:).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ines: You're welcome, of course. Enjoy the book (first) and later the movie. And never sweat that preposition thing. I too enjoy having stuff to look forward to!

      Delete