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Belles on Their ToesRating:
Release Date: 16 March, 2004 Retail Price: $14.98 OUR Price: $13.48 You SAVE: $1.50! Cast: Complete Cast (7 total) |
Belles on Their Toes Reviews
Charming but uneven
There's an undeniable sweetness and charm to this film, but overall it just doesn't feel as satisfying and well-developed as the movie version of CBTD. That movie wasn't entirely true to every bit of the book, but it overwhelmingly felt close to the book's spirit despite some things that were left out and some things that were invented. In BOTT, the viewer doesn't get nearly as much a sense of period authenticity and details as in the original; it looks more like something from the Fifties instead of a story taking place in the Twenties. And there were a lot of events from the book left out, commingled with a few things that did really happen in the book; the storyline definitely had far more liberties taken with it. Missing all of these important events that really set the mood for how much this family cared for one another and what a great job they did getting by on their own, one doesn't really feel quite as connected to the characters and the plot as in the original. (It was also interesting to note how they cut and pasted two different but similar events from the first and second books, the film of the family eating dinner at something like ten times the normal speed as opposed to the film of Mrs. Gilbreth demonstrating how time-saving the design of her kitchen was.) The book focuses on Mrs. Gilbreth's struggle to raise her eleven children after her husband dies and how she steps into his shoes, even though she was a female engineer in a man's world at a time when many female professionals weren't taken seriously; in real life she was a lot more successful and welcomed than the movie makes her out to be. It's enjoyable enough family entertainment, just lacks the continuity and even pacing of the original. Because of all of the things that were left out and substituted for by things invented (perhaps to give it a more modern feel, like the scene of the beach barbeque/dance party), it just doesn't flow as naturally or seem quite as engaging.
Terrific old stuff...
Old values. Wonderful performances by Jeffrey Hunter ("The Searchers") and Jeanne Craine (an original from "Cheaper by the Dozen").
More Customer Reviews (7 total)
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