Aria Braden

The film was a rushed version of the books and did none of the characters justice. The poor, half-hearted acting only worsened the one dimensional stock characters. The fact that they tried to condense a book of 100 chapters meant that they were forced to either sacrifice some of the narrative or the depth of character however it seems they opted to sacrifice both and produce what is less than a poorly constructed framework for a storyline. I read the books when they were first published as Harry Styles fan fiction, while in the originals, ‘Harry Styles’ was only his name and looks rather than being based upon anything more, I found the story to be one of great character development with huge depth and dimension to almost every character. In a desperate attempt to widen their audience as much as possible by limiting themselves to a PG-13 rating, they lost much of the plot line. The sexual endeavours are, at most, hinted at and the entire turning point of the plot is ruined. In the original, Tessa finds herself the subject of a bet between Hardin and Zedd (although he can hardly even be considered as a character in the film) concerning who could take Tessa’s virginity first. In this the sexual awakening of a young woman and the subsequent humiliation and vulnerability are explored in a way that is importantly uncomfortable to read. The fact that such a long book was forced into an hour and a half meant that the relationship between the two is rushed and not explored which means that inevitably the audience cannot feel anything besides indifference towards the break up and undermines anything said by either about their feelings for eachother considering how little words they’ve actually spoken. The film tried way too hard to be like every other teen movie and missed out on teaching important lessons particularly about Hardin’s controlling nature and presenting Tessa as a head-strong, independent woman. Certain scenes and references (namely the bonfire scene and the reference to Vance publishing) weren’t even worth mentioning as they were so rushed and forced in that they didn’t add anything to the plot. The opportunity to explore Hardin’s issues with his father was ignored as it was never mentioned again nor did it seem to impact the plot in any way. I’m disappointed particularly as I’ve read the original books multiple times over and have been following Anna Todd since she wrote the first one. She’s no Bronte but she allows the characters depth and she’s been done wrong with this film as these isn’t the story she created. With a little more time and thought, this film had the potential to be a lot more than it was and it’s truly a shame. One can only assume that the film will get poor reviews and any intention of completing the trilogy will be binned as the actors refuse to have their name further associated with it and the producers realise their mistakes. A real shame as it was associated with an author who is entirely self-made and doesn’t receive due credit for writing the most read book on wattpad of all time with over 500 million reads on the first After book alone.