A Painted House

Rating:
Summary: -An American Story--
Review: Having listened to this book on tape, my husband and I were delighted to see that Hallmark Hall of Fame had turned this wonderful story into a film. We were not disappointed.

This story takes place in Arkansas and is set in September of 1952. The Chandler family owns a farm. They grow cotton and hire both, Mexican migrant workers and Hill people, to pick their crop. The two groups clash when they meet on the Chandler farm. The story is told by 10 year old Luke Chandler. Logan Lerman gave a memorable performance as Luke. The entire cast was good, and we also enjoyed Scott Glenn in the role of Luke's grandfather.

John Grisham's books are always captivating, but this is my favorite. I wish that he would write more stories like this one. It gave us a look at America in a different era when baseball was an American past time and families worked together for a common goal. It also showed the relationship between the farmers and migrant workers who shared the responsibility of harvesting the cotton.


Rating:
Summary: Great movie, great acting, Logan Lerman is a standout!
Review: I haven't read the book, but as a movie, I was really impressed. Logan Lerman really shines, he really puts life into Luke. I really enjoyed getting lost into this movie and the acting made it easy to feel what they were feeling. A wonderful movie about a boy dealing with life, problems, yet still being a kid, a farm family trying to survive. I've found that when books are turned into movies, they often have many differnces from the books, so I try to view the movie separate from the book on it's own terms. The Painted House tells a story, and has feeling. Perfect, no, enjoyable, definately!!

Rating:
Summary: Read it instead.
Review: If you see it you'll never want to read it, a great book to read. The movie didn't carry the half of it.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Review: most reviewers think they need to write an essay comparrison between the book and movie. I am simply going to review the movie. It was great and very heartwarming. A good family classic to have. Good values and a great glimpse into southern life. Too bad movies today don't have the same wholesome storyline that A Painted House does.

Rating:
Summary: one talented actor
Review: My family and I enjoyed this movie. The story line was good and was a pretty clean movie for family entertainment. The actor we enjoyed the most will be missed if you are not looking for him, but about one fourth of the way through the movie he runs up to the movie theater and says "there's a fight behind the co-op". Then he appears in the fight scene a few more times, watch for him, his presence explodes on to the film and by far is the most impressive actor in the movie! Buy several copies of this movie to give as gifts and share this undiscovered talent with others!

Rating:
Summary: The book is always better than the movie
Review: One reviewer complained about the narrator, but I believe we should make allowances for him since it was the author John Grisham. Having grown up in the area and the same timeframe, I thought they got the accents and the flavor of cotton farming reasonably close.

Rating:
Summary: The book was better... by far...
Review: This was my first John Grisham book and I absolutely loved the book, and I, too, was excited about seeing the movie. The acting was bad, the narration and script was terrible, there were parts of the book left out (which is understandable) and a few things were twisted a little. I don't feel like any of the characters were really developed in the movie. Overall, I'd recommend reading the book because the movie was a poor depiction of a great novel.

Rating:
Summary: A major disappointment
Review: This was one of my favorite John Grisham books. When I learned it was a movie I could not wait to see it. Now that I have seen the movie I wish they never made it. It has the worst narration I have ever heard. The narrator spoke with no feeling or emotion and you could clearly tell he was reading from a script. I guess you can't expect much from a made for TV movie but I was expecting more. Great parts of the book were left out and the actors did a fair job portraying people that were so clearly defined in the book. I wonder if they even read the book?