The adaptation of the novel may not be without faults but Anne With An E is a must see for the child in you.
“It’s not what the world holds for you, it’s what you bring to it.”
An orphan girl gets adopted by an aging brother-sister duo in the idyllic fictional town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island, Canada in the 1890s. This is her coming-of-age story of discovering love and life and how she changes the lives of her adoptive parents and the impact she makes on the community that was initially unaccepting of her.
Ann With An E is based on Anne of Green Gables, a 1908 novel by Canadian author, Lucy Maud Montgomery. The book, a progressive work in that age, is considered a classic children’s novel. It is, indeed, a heartwarming tale of a young girl using her imagination, intelligence and emotional maturity to surmount the odds that come her way and emerge as an icon of sorts for her peers.
Amybeth McNulty as Anne Shirley Cuthbert is such a delight. Immensely gifted, she brings alive the lead protagonist and literally gets into the skin of her character. A natural blonde, she dyed her hair red for this role. I also loved the veteran British actor, Geraldine James, who plays her foster mother, Marilla.
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The adaptation of the novel may not be without faults, but the languid and unhurried feel of a pastoral community grows on you, transporting you to a different time. While the execution does flounder in Season 2, it picks up, and at the end of Season 3, the story is tantalisingly poised as the young Anne, now 16, is in the throes of love and on the threshold of a new journey as a college student.
It’s a pity that CBC-Netflix decided not to renew it for Season 4. On that, the series brilliant showrunner Moira Walley-Beckett (who also wrote Breaking Bad), wistfully says that “art and commerce is never an easy marriage”. Fans of the show, however, are not giving up and waging a digital war for the series to return.
Anne With An E is a must see for the child in you.
Where to Watch: Netflix
IMDb Rating: 8.7/10
My Rating: 4.2/5
By Sanjay Trehan
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