Hearts, Books, and Their Ways of Never Parting

What did I think of the movie?

Hmm... honestly, I thought the movie, overall, was quite wonderful.

I don't really know if I can say it was as great of a movie as I can say it was a wonderful visual essay, however.

When I think of the terms that dictate what a good movie should be these days, I think of all those things like a swiftly moving, highly elaborated plot, deep character development, and a story that can blow your mind.

When it comes to the Sexsons, "My Book and Heart Shall Never Part," I wasn't expecting all those things to begin with, but am happy to say I was surprised by what I did get.

First of all, the images were wonderful. I read how the Cinematographer, Colin McWilliams, wanted the aesthetics of the film to come across before the movie started. "We wanted the film to pull you in, in surprising ways, like a good book does." They accomplished this wonderfully by "flowing" across the pages with the camera, as if it were through the readers eyes, showing us the places we were to look, ensuring we all discovered the same thing at the same time. I can only guess to the difficulty involved in finding all those old primers and reading through each.

Secondly, the narration was superb. Both of the Sexsons did a fantastic job, along with their grand daughter, of narrating the story. I could have listened to all three of them talking to me all night long, reading me stories of long ago children and their amazing adventures as I drifted into a deep sleep.

And there in lies the shortcoming of the visual essay. For me it felt like many of the humorous and attention grabbing moments were in the beginning and it began to slightly drag on at the end. Now, maybe this is because I was looking at it more through the eyes of my date who was much less interested in the movie than I, but even so, I thought the pacing was a little off in that it was quite whimsical in the beginning and became slightly convoluted in the end (if one wasn't paying close attention, you could have very well missed how The Indian Education by The Pioneers fit in with - What a child is? What nature is? and What a book is?).

Shortcomings aside, I enjoyed the evening very much and greatly appreciated the young actors for how well they did in the movie. There were many provocative ideas and visuals throughout the movie, and I would be telling a complete lie if I were to say I didn't come out of the show without learning many a great things about primers, their roots, the ideas of literature in centuries past and many other things.

Congratulations to the Sexsons for all their hard work coming forth in such an educational and interesting look into something that is at the brink of extinction in our minds!

(PS - Loved the Carrot Cake!)