User blog comment:Eikakou/L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables: The Good Stars review/@comment-4934571-20170222142729/@comment-1442230-20170223032055

To be fair, Anne and Gilbert's "budding romance" doesn't dominate the story like in the earlier adaptations (if my review unfortunately comes across that way). I'd say they're friendlier than expected - I think Gilbert has more of a crush on her than she has feelings for him. So little of Gilbert was shown in the first film, so I think the second film was trying to push for how important he'll become in Anne's life later. But on Anne's side of things, she still very much in her own world, so romance is far off her radar. The Good Stars is really more about how Anne is learning to become aware of other people, which is how she's learning to be responsible. Her relationships with Gilbert and Diana are just another example of this and unfortunately, she's still at the stage of her life where she thinks that there's only one way to resolve everything and hasn't worked out how to think things through patiently.

I thought Mr. Phillips' storyline was probably one of the more interesting subplots. I was always uncomfortable with how he was so close to Prissy in the 1985 series (and to be honest, I thought he was a very unlikeable character and Prissy seemed like a ditz); I get the feeling that since L.M. Montgomery's series are more geared towards a younger contemporary audience, this sort of depiction of a teacher courting a young student wouldn't be appropriate. This version of Mr. Phillips is more sympathetic and you can see how he's getting weary of his job (where he is solidly working as a competent teacher and definitely not courting any students) and he's looking for something more challenging.