Audience Member
Jane is a young girl who reminds me of Anne Shirley of Green Gables. She takes it upon herself to reconcile her parents even though her mom lives in Toronto and her dad in Prince Edward Island (where the movie is set). It makes for a great family movie
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Lantern Hill is based on the novel Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery, the same author who wrote Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon. The movie was produced by Sullivan Entertainment, like Anne was, and just like Anne, this movie is a great find. Im actually surprised I hadnt heard of it before acquiring it by chance and watching it. It really is very good.
The story follows a girl named Jane who lives in Toronto with her mother in the early 1900s. Her mother comes down with a serious illness however and Jane is forced to leave her middle class home to move in with her very wealthy grandmother while her mother recovers. Jane doesnt fit in very well here and, much to her grandmothers horror, would much rather spend her time in the kitchen or doing housework than socializing with other girls from elite families. She is also frequently bullied by her cousin who one day tells her that her father, whom she was told passed away, is alive. Her grandmother receives a letter soon after that from her father, requesting that Jane comes to live with him for a time in Prince Edward Island. Fearful of legal issues that could arise, her grandmother has no choice but to send her away. Jane of course goes along and, like many heroines in LMM books we get the sense that she isnt really wanted or needed (unlike many heroines though she does have both parents alive). Jane arrives and is picked up by her fathers sister, who Jane seems not to gel with immediately. Jane meets her father, who is a writer, and hes a scatter brained person with a big dog and a house by the sea on Lantern Hill. At first she feels just as ostracized and out or place as she did back in Toronto, but as her relationship with her father gets a little better and she slowly settles into island life she feels happy. She also finds out that there is a potential woman in her fathers life now, but he has never remarried since her mother. Jane of course wants her parents to reunite.
This movie is fantastic. It has the same level of production as Anne of Green Gables, but the story and character types are different so it has a different feel to it. Jane is a really great heroine. Shes a good heroine because even though she loves doing domestic things (unpopular even today as something a woman should aspire to or even enjoy in some circles) she doesnt give in to the situations shes thrust into. She isnt very vocal about what she wants, but she stubbornly stays true to herself.
Also, a young Sarah Polley has a role in the film as a young scullery maid who befriends Jane. As fans may know, Sarah Polley stars in another successful Sullivan production called Road to Avonlea, which is a series featuring the town Anne was a part of, though shes not in the show at all.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Oh, my, this is a bad adaptation. I'm quite sure I saw it first, long ago. Colleen Dewhurst's character doesn't really exist in the book. The subplot of the suicide/accident doesn't exist at all in the book. Much of what [i]does[/i] happen in the book doesn't happen here. The character of Jody has an inexplicable Cockney accent here, and no one knows why.
However, I do enjoy it. I manage to detach it from the book even more than I can [i]Anne of Green Gables[/i], largely by the same people and closer to its source material. It really doesn't matter that, for example, Victoria Jane Stuart lived her whole life at 90 Gay (Blythe Avenue in the movie) with her mother, aunt, and grandmother in the book. It doesn't matter that the action of the book takes place over years. It doesn't matter that Jane first visits her father for a summer.
The basic idea is the same. Andrew and Robin Stuart are two people separated by stubbornness and stupidity and reunited by their daughter. Robin's family is rich. Andrew is a writer. Their daughter, Victoria Jane, grows up believing her father to be dead. (I believe the movie claims that she was told he was, but no one mentioned him at all in the book until someone at school told her he was still alive.)
If you pick one, by all means pick the book. [i]Jane of Lantern Hill[/i] is more nuanced and, in most ways, more entertaining. However, if you care to take the time and energy to track down the movie--perhaps you are a Sam Waterston or Colleen Dewhurst fan--it is indeed worth it.
The movie is eerier, closer to L. M. Montgomery's work in [i]Beyond the Shadows[/i]. However, it doesn't really have the L. M. Montgomery feel, exactly. Still and all, it's worth checking out. Even if it isn't as good as the book. These things seldom are.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/12/23
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