Although normally I get upset when movie-makers deviate from a well-known story I have read, I understand that for legal reasons and timing -- if the actors had gotten much older there would have been no point -- he needed a script. This one gave them an opportunity to pursue themes of the era and explore how Anne and Gilbert could have responded to them: a woman writer, the glass ceiling and other gender role situations, WWI with its patriotism, espionage and tragedy, medical ethics in a teaching hospital and in war, sucking up to donors because public money isn't there... come to think of it, those are themes of today too, which is why I liked the movie. (The LM Montgomery books of Anne as an adult were disappointing to me in the lack of serious themes.) The war scenes in the movie were realistic and tension-filled but I endured them better than I do many war movies. I loved seeing how Anne could grow up and deal with more serious challenges, and I loved Megan Follows' performance. She was able to portray more depth of character and variety of emotion than the earlier movies required. The only thing I didn't like is, the "chaos of war" scenes went on longer than necessary.
