I have not read the source material, so I cannot comment on that. However, I will note that the screenplay was written by Blanche Hanalis; and it's definitely her style. Ms. Hanalis was responsible for bringing Little House on the Prairie to television; and if you're at all familiar with that show, then you'll know that it's basically dumbed-down, Hollywood-sanitized storytelling.
I liked with this movie tries to do: entertain yet enlighten. Unfortunately, the ridiculous dialogue Ms. Hanalis gives the children really got under my skin. Unless she lifted most of it from the actual novel, it's as though she tried "too hard" to imagine what two juveniles, especially siblings, would say to each other.
If you can get past that and make it to the point, at basically the end of the film, when Ms. Bergman's character makes her first appearance, you'll likely be pleased with the movie as a whole. In juxtaposition, it's Ms. Bergman's casting and performance that saves this from being a joke. There's a reason it was pulled from the box office, re-titled, and sent overseas...probably to try to recoup its budget.
I liked with this movie tries to do: entertain yet enlighten. Unfortunately, the ridiculous dialogue Ms. Hanalis gives the children really got under my skin. Unless she lifted most of it from the actual novel, it's as though she tried "too hard" to imagine what two juveniles, especially siblings, would say to each other.
If you can get past that and make it to the point, at basically the end of the film, when Ms. Bergman's character makes her first appearance, you'll likely be pleased with the movie as a whole. In juxtaposition, it's Ms. Bergman's casting and performance that saves this from being a joke. There's a reason it was pulled from the box office, re-titled, and sent overseas...probably to try to recoup its budget.