Adapting an existing property into a movie offers up a few choice challenges. Chief among them balancing necessary changes due to medium differences versus keeping the motifs alive and well. When an adaptation is done successfully full-fledged masterpieces can emerge; sometimes outshining the original creation, at least in the view of pop culture. When it is not handled with the proper care, however, it can make the movie irrelevant or dull. Such is the case with Kepler’s Dream. Based on a young adult novel by Juliet Bell, something has been lost in translation.
“When grandma’s most prized book is stolen, all clues point to…”
Kepler’s Dream sees Ella (Isabella Blake-Thomas) sent off to live with her distant grandma, Violet (Holland Taylor), at a desert ranch, while her mom (Kelly Lynch) undergoes treatment for cancer and her dad (Sean Patrick Flanery) is working on a boat. The ranch has other folks staying there, including ranch-hand Miguel (Steven Quezada), his daughter Adela (Tailinh Agoyo), and Abercrombie (David Hunt), a rare book dealer. When grandma’s most prized book is stolen, all clues point to Miguel. Is he really the culprit? Will Ella overcome the doldrums of her new life and find the book?
Bell’s novel has gotten high praise with the New York Times stating “…(the book) is full of smart, subversive commentary…” and that it is “… utterly captivating, idiosyncratic, rich, and memorable”. It also has an above average rating of 3.7 stars on the user rating site Good Reads. Whatever clear voice Bell wrote for the narrator, eleven-year-old Ella is not present anywhere in the movie. The dialogue for each character is either exposition or awkwardly phrased.
“…similar to that of a cheap soap opera…”
It doesn’t help matters that the characters as written for the movie are one-dimensional and have no arcs. A scene wherein the grandma confesses how much she really does love her family rings hollow, as there is no connective tissue in any scene that shows the audience that her words have emotional weight. Introduction and set up are critical, but the engaging aspects of the plot- that being of the book theft- don’t even start until over halfway through, and then is resolved in less than fifteen minutes with little fanfare. As such, virtually nothing happens in the movie, and it is impossible to care about the characters or their interactions.
Forgettable writing could potentially be overcome by great directing and intense visual prowess. Sadly, director Amy Glazer’s style is similar to that of a cheap soap opera. There is not one scene that moves beyond a basic medium shot. It is flat, lifeless, and fails to energize any of the proceedings. The acting is all serviceable if a bit bland.
Kepler’s Dream is underwhelming from start to finish without a single memorable character. Read the book instead.
Kepler’s Dream (2017) Directed by Amy Glazer. Written by Sylvia Brownrigg, Sedge Thomson, Ann Cummins, Amy Glazer, Vijay Rajan. Starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Isabella Blake-Thomas, Tailinh Agoyo, David Hunt, Holland Taylor, Kelly Lynch.
Grade: D+
Did not catch the ending when he was trying to pay hospital bill