Marissa Madden

Going into this movie, I had high expectations because the book is filled with emotion and strong themes that make you fall in love with it. The movie did not do a good job of emphasizing any themes other than the abuse from Ryle and her father. Even this theme wasn’t always clear throughout the movie until the end. I had to explain parts of it to my friend who hadn’t read the book, and it felt like you had to assume so much of the plot. I was very disappointed with the way the characters were presented. In the book, Lily is submissive and shy but becomes confident and assertive enough to stop the cycle of abuse and protect herself and her daughter. Throughout the movie, I saw no real love or connection between Ryle and Lily. In my opinion, this is the biggest theme because it shows how hard it was for Lily to leave Ryle since she was so in love with him and he always seemed like a good guy until he wasn’t. Overall, that is my biggest complaint, and I’m very disappointed with the movie. There’s so much more I could say but I’ll leave it at that.