Review | Actor Rachel McAdams’ Anne of Green Gables wins you over – just
Canadian actress Rachel McAdams doesn’t modulate her tone enough at first, but she does eventually bring to life the feisty Anne, beloved by generations of teenage girls
by Lucy Maud Montgomery
(read by Rachel McAdams)
Audible Studios (audiobook)
Canadian actor Rachel McAdams “performs” the classic Canadian bildungsroman, Anne of Green Gables. Why is it that Hollywood narrators “perform” while others merely “read”? It’s like pretentious critics calling coming-of-age stories bildungsromans … Anyway, the titular Anne is adopted by mistake by 50-something siblings who had expected a boy. “Couldn’t you have sent her back?” asks neighbour Mrs Lynde “sympathetically”, before provoking the first of many outbursts from the headstrong Anne: “How dare you say I’m freckled and redheaded? You are a rude, impolite, unfeeling woman!” The narration is pleasant enough but the unvarying diction never seems entirely confident of where to pause or place stress. However, like Anne, McAdams wins you over. Just about.