M ounia

People shouldn't expect movie adaptations to be a step by step visual version of the book. If you want that, just reread the book and use your imagination harder. Not that this wasn't accurate to the book, it is a very solid retelling that used all of the parts that mattered, while simultaneously allowing the director and writers to add in their touch. This movie was enjoyable, the sets were incredible, the characters were all steadily brought to life. The way they handled the flash-backs was smooth, their choice to omit the Ellen bit and simply hint at it within a few scenes I was frankly thankful for, since it wouldn't really work for a movie the way it would in a book. And Lily's outfits! The amount on talk there was about her 'funky' outfits was surprisingly negative, I found it brought out her character a lot more than boring outfits and dialogue would have. I also found them very pretty too, so I'm really not sure what the hate it about. I was especially impressed by the acting of young Lily and Atlas. Their uncanny resemblance to the grown up actors shows how much thought went into the casting of all the characters. Having read the book, I was initially very upset about how they portrayed the scenes where Ryle hurt Lily. But I must admit I was relieved and pleasantly surprised that it was a conscious effort to water down what happened and mislead us into looking at the happening through Lily's perspective, where she opted not to see what was really going on, until the very end where she no longer had the margin to allow herself to live in the lie. When that happened, I thought back to the line she said when she just met Ryle, 'I'm an unreliable narrator.' And I must say that was an enjoyable conclusion to reach. Overall, this is a great movie to watch, if one wants to experience a very riling and tragic tale, told through pretty scenes and subtle expression. This wasn't an on the nose cautionary tale. It's a lot more raw. And I think that is the biggest charm of this movie. If I had any issue with it, it would be the long making out and intimate scenes which made me uncomfortable watching it with others, since I had told them it was a movie about abuse and such themes. It wasn't important for the story, it didn't add anything in the book or in the movie. Besides that, I would recommend this movie.

It was bad. The directing was good, the acting was fine, yet, it seemed like the core reason why it was a highly unenjoyable experience seems to be the source material. I don't like how much of a low life the main girl is, how she claims to have learned to love herself, but all she really did was break up with someone she so easily forgave in the first place and moved on with her life. Her sudden, out-of-nowhere job opportunity was such a clumsy way of making her move on, it pissed me off. When I realized that literally, all she had managed to do by the end of the movie was to break up with her boyfriend and get a good job, I was really mad. Her ex didn't get what he deserved, instead, she slept with him several times, and was even going to move in with him and forget all he did to her if not for the convenient job opportunity. I mean, good for her, but are we going to ignore the fact that if she didn't get this job opportunity in Paris, she would've just continued living with him, no matter how much he hurt her in the past, not considering how he never even did anything that showed that he changed, or that he deserves forgiveness...? It's pathetic, and not something you should make a movie about. A complete waste of time. The only plotline I enjoyed was the friend who was waiting for her dead boyfriend to reincarnate into someone else because it was kind of fun. Although, she still needs to redeem herself for literally abandoning her current boyfriend for who knows how long and ignoring him all the while she hangs out/ cheats with her ex-boyfriend's supposed reincarnation and then comes back to him as if nothing happened in the end. But yeah, I hate that I watched this with my mom and had her waste her time waiting for this to get good and then abandoning it in the last 30 mins, pissed at ME for suggesting we watch this.