Please note this review contains spoilers both about book and the movie. Sheila Hocken's "Emma and I" is an autobiography book on which this movie is based. It has been one of my favourite books for years, so was looking forward to watching the movie. Although I liked the movie characters and the dog was just adorable, it left me a little bit wondering why did they change it so much from the book. The book was amazing and perfect by itself. In real life, Sheila and her husband (yes he became her husband) lived together for many years with Emma and had a child middle-named Emma after her dog. Emma lived with them for many years before the operation took place. Emma was a chocolate Labrador, not a yellow one. But the bit I found the most disappointing was the movie ending. Emma actually stayed with Sheila and the family in real life, as she was coming to the end of her working life anyway, and also guide dogs organisation has never had a case of someone regaining their sight, so they let Emma stay. And in case anyone is interested what happened to real Emma, she lived to 16 yrs old with Sheila & the family. Sheila was so smitten with her that she decided she will breed chocolate labs and they ended up having 6 dogs including a chocolate German Pointer who belonged to her husband. They also had Siamese cats too, and lived happily ever after as a wonderful big family. Sheila wrote 7 books about Emma, I cannot recommend more reading them all, they will touch you way more then the movie. You are likely to find them second hand on Amazon and Ebay, I don't think they are on sale anymore in regular bookshops. So movie gets a reduced 8 for the unnecessary changes, but it is worth watching.
Review of Second Sight: A Love Story
Second Sight: A Love Story
(1984 TV Movie)
Interesting lovely movie, but puzzling if you have read the book first
25 January 2014
Warning: Spoilers