Reviews and More

E.B. White’s children’s classic Charlotte’s Web was one of my favorite books when I was a kid. I must have read it at least 50 times back then, and the story never lost its magic. I also saw the 1973 animated feature a few times, and remember liking that as well. Of course now it’s been at least 20 years since I’ve taken in Charlotte’s Web in any form, so I was basically going into the 2006 film with no real expectations as to what I might get out of this latest version.

Charlotte’s Web presents viewers with a combination of live action and CGI, so there’s a somewhat more realistic feel to what takes place in the Zuckerman’s barnyard in Maine. The basic story, in case you’ve forgotten, is as follows: a sow gives birth to a litter of pigs on the Arable farm early one morning. Young Fern Arable (played by Dakota Fanning) rushes out to the barn in excitement to see the new arrivals, but she unexpectedly walks in on her father grabbing an axe and the runt of the litter. There’s no sense in keeping the runt around, he says, because it will just die off anyway (in a survival of the fittest sense). Fern refuses to let her father kill the runt, promising to take care of it and raise it herself. Mr. Arable reluctantly agrees.

Fern names the pig Wilbur and spends a lot of time with him. She feeds him from a bottle, plays with him, bathes him in the sink, and even brings him to school. Unfortunately, he’s growing fast and Mr. Arable insists that now is the time for Fern to get rid of the pig once and for all. Fern takes Wilbur across the road to her uncle Homer’s farm and promises to continue to visit Wilbur every day.

Once Wilbur is in the barnyard, we realize that he and the other animals can actually talk. Wilbur (voiced by Dominic Scott Kay) starts asking the other animals (which consist of some cows, sheep, geese, a horse, and a rat) to chat with him and be his friend, but they pretty much ignore him.

Then one night Wilbur hears a voice from someone who says she’ll be his friend. That voice belongs to Charlotte (Julia Roberts), a spider that lives above the barnyard door. Wilbur happily agrees to this, but the other animals all laugh at the arrangement. Why would Wilbur want to be friends with a lowly spider?

But Wilbur doesn’t see it that way. He’s willing to be friendly to everyone, including Templeton the Rat (Steve Buscemi), whom none of the other animals seem to want anything to do with.

Anyway, Charlotte and Wilbur become friends, and Charlotte devises a way to help save Wilbur from becoming Christmas dinner. She starts spinning descriptive words into her web in an attempt to make Wilbur famous because then Farmer Zuckerman wouldn’t want to slaughter him. She writes things like, “Some pig”, “Terrific”, “Radiant”, and “Humble”, and these words do indeed save Wilbur. He ends up winning an award and living a long, happy life in the barn. Those of you already familiar with the story know what happened to Charlotte; those of you not familiar with the story will have to see the film to find out.

My Reaction: I thought this version of Charlotte’s Web was very watchable and, for the most part, rather entertaining. Nothing could compare to E.B. White’s original book, however, so it wouldn’t really be fair to hold the film up to that lofty standard.

Strengths:

• The movie was nice and short, and was able to hold my 4-year–old son’s interest for long stretches.
• The only really slow parts (judging by my son’s actions) were the scenes showing Fern and her new boyfriend at the fair and other scenes in which the animals didn’t appear at all.
• The CGI was reasonably good and as a result, none of the animals were particularly distracting.
• The gist of the story and much of the emotion came through in this version, even if the re-telling wasn’t very inspired.

Weaknesses:

• I didn’t like Julia Roberts as the voice of Charlotte. The voice was very flat and came off as quite preachy and superior, and I was a bit put off by this.
• As an adult it was difficult at times to get into the story. There were occasions when I would look at the screen and see a pig talking to a spider rather than Wilbur talking to Charlotte, and that of course made things seem rather ridiculous. When reading the book, it’s easy to forget that the story is about animals; not so on film.

Overall, I give this adaptation of Charlotte’s Web 7.0 stars out of 10. I think it offers something for both kids and adults, and should definitely be a candidate for your next family movie night.

For many people, a mortgage is the most significant financial transaction they’ll make in their lifetime in terms of sheer dollar value and length of commitment. Going hundreds of thousands of dollars into debt for a period of 30 years or more is nothing to sneeze at, yet I am amazed at how some people fail to put in the time to research their prospective loan to make sure that they’re getting a good deal. As a result, they often end up locked into a high interest rate that will cost them a lot of money over the years.

I hate to see people throw their hard-earned money away like that, so whenever anybody asks me for advice, I urge them to spend some time learning basic information about how mortgages work. I also recommend that they use online mortgage calculators to run through various scenarios so they can see exactly what they can expect to pay at different interest rate and principal amounts. And finally, I convince them of the necessity of shopping around for the best interest rates out there instead of jumping at the first loan a lender offers. I know these tips amount to nothing more than common sense, but some people definitely need a refresher course from time to time.

With the right information and tools, anyone can get a great loan at a fair interest rate. If you’re looking to purchase a home for the first time or are interested in refinancing your current mortgage, then start arming yourself with the proper information today!

It feels like I haven’t been reading very much recently, so I decided to make a push in the last couple of days in order to finish up Agatha Christie’s Murder in Mesopotamia. This novel was published in 1936 and once again features Hercule Poirot as the lead detective. Here’s what happened in the book.

Christie usually doesn’t give very much background information about the major characters in the early chapters, choosing instead to reveal that kind of info later on as the plot develops. In her previous novels, the murder occurs within the first few chapters, but Murder in Mesopotamia departs from this formula to a certain extent. In this book, readers are treated to several chapters of narrative that show the characters interacting with each other on the site of an archaeological dig in Iraq. The murder doesn’t occur until well into the novel, and Poirot doesn’t make an appearance until the middle chapters.

The main story revolves around a woman named Louise Leidner, whose husband, Dr. Leidner, is the head archaeologist on the dig. Mrs. Leidner firmly believes that someone is stalking her. She has been receiving threatening letters from an anonymous sender for years, and thinks that her life is in danger. Her husband thinks she’s being paranoid, but nevertheless hires a nurse (Amy Leatheran) to tend to her. It is from the nurse’s perspective that the entire story is told.

As you might expect, Mrs. Leidner is indeed murdered at some point, and it’s nearly impossible at first glance to tell who did it. Was it an outsider? None of the servants saw a stranger enter the premises. Was it a member of the expedition? Several people had the motive to kill Mrs. Leidner, but no one had the opportunity. That’s when Poirot, who happens to be traveling through the area, is called in to investigate.

The rest of the novel then deals with Poirot’s interrogation of the suspects, formulation of theories as to how the crime was committed, and the elimination, one by one, of the suspects until the murderer is rooted out. Poirot has always triumphed before, and this case was no different.

My Reaction: First of all, I have to say that I don’t really enjoy the cases where Poirot is basically seen as an outsider. When cases are narrated by Hastings, for example, then we get to examine Poirot’s thought processes more closely and we feel as though we’re part of the immediate action in the book. In cases narrated by someone not associated with Poirot, the Belgian detective’s actions are more peripheral and therefore not as interesting to me.

Other than that, however, I did like the novel. I liked getting to know the characters and forming some preliminary opinions of my own before watching the investigation unfold. I also thought Christie did a good job of supplying the motive for the crime and also of explaining how the murder actually took place. I don’t know that this was a case that could have been solved even by a careful reader, but it was still enjoyable.

Overall, I give Murder in Mesopotamia 7.0 stars out of 10. It’s not exactly a page-turner, but it was never boring so I think most mystery fans would like this one.