Check it out

If you’re not watching James Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life” this

holiday eve, there are other touching tales waiting to unwind on library

video shelves.

Especially enjoyable for many are those that began as books and were made

into movies -- a transformation that frequently inspires renewed interest

in the source material.

Recently added to the collection is “A Lesson Before Dying,” an

adaptation of Ernest Gaine’s award-winning novel about a retarded black

man wrongly accused of murdering a white shopkeeper. Set in segregated

Louisiana in the 1940s, the story explores divisions that splinter black

society, as well as what it means to be human and the responsibility a

man has to himself and his community.

A dead child, a runaway slave and a terrible secret form the heart of

“Beloved,” Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel made into a movie

starring Oprah Winfrey. Like the multilayered masterpiece on which it is

based, the three-hour film is chilling in its revelation of slavery’s

horrors and the struggle to rebuild a life riddled by haunting memories.

For lighter fare, check out “How Stella Got Her Groove Back,” Terry

McMillan’s best-selling novel about a fortyish Manhattan stock trader and

single mom whose ho-hum life gets recharged during a Jamaican vacation.

Then, take a virtual tour of the tropics with the video starring Angela

Bassett as the high-powered Stella Payne and Whoopi Goldberg as her

man-hunting pal.

The winner of nine Academy Awards, “The English Patient” offers a more

dramatic foray into love and loss during World War II. The

multidimensional flashback movie based on Michael Ondaatze’s novel

improves with multiple viewings, and dazzling performances by Ralph

Fiennes, Juliette Binoche and Kristin Scott Thomas add depth to the

adaptation.

For sci-fi fans, director Robert Zemeckis’ “Contact” uses breathtaking

imagery to express heroine Jodie Foster’s quest for the meaning of human

existence through extraterrestrial contact. Adapted from Carl Sagan’s

novel about the search for spiritual and scientific knowledge, the

big-budget film combines elements of science, religion and government,

and looks to their future role and impact.

Family dysfunction is a central theme of “A Thousand Acres,” adapted from

Jane Smiley’s modern version of “King Lear.” Jessica Lange, Michelle

Pfeiffer and Jennifer Jason Leigh play three sisters who inherit the

family farm and are forced to face the grim realities of long-held

secrets.

Dysfunction also figures into the dynamics of “One True Thing,” the movie

adapted from Anna Quindlen’s novel about a young writer forced to put her

career on hold to care for her cancer-stricken mom. While exploring the

mysteries of marriage, family and fate, this compelling drama reveals

much about how to add meaning to real life that can make it truly

wonderful.

* CHECK IT OUT is written by the staff of the Newport Beach Public

Library. This week’s column is by Melissa Adams, in collaboration with

Debbie Walker.