movie or book?

windamgirl

If you've read the book, don't watch this movie.

And if you're thinking about watching the movie, read the book instead.

I was completely disappointed in this adaptation, which seems to have retained only the names of the characters and the fact that Mary Rose was found as a baby by the brothers (although the more specific details of this have been altered as well).  All I could think while watching this travesty was, a) Apparently the screenplay writer read the back copy of the novel and not Garwood's actual book and b) Thank god for Jennifer Garner and Justin Chambers (the only apparent acting talent in the movie), otherwise I'd shoot myself right now.

By the end of the movie, I was trying to figure out how Julie Garwood even allowed her name to be anywhere in the same universe as this film.  I would probably have felt about ten thousand times better if this was done independent of the book, since it has practically nothing in common.  And I would have been much less freaked out when Cole and Adam die (uh, yeah, in Julie Garwood world they get their own novels) and waaaaaay less weirded out when Harrison, Mary Rose's boyfriend/husband in the book shows up as her brother in the movie.

Okay, really, the message here is just read the freaking book.  Pretend the movie never happened.

score /10

windamgirl 17 April 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0394260/