Teya Bartley

I read this novel about 5 years ago, when it was mostly unheard of (at least to me.) At 15, I felt the story was robust and heavy. I felt RW&B was engaging, and the build up to their romance was enjoyable in the book. When I heard years later that they were making this into a film adaptation, I was excited to revisit this story through a new lens. I was dissapointed the first time I watched this movie, and thought perhaps I had just imagined the fullness of the story at a naive 15 years old. Reading others' reviews, I know now I am not imagining anything. I rewatched the movie a few months after it's release today, and couldn't help but feel even more disappointed. The entire time, I can feel the story of these two characters grazing the surface but never quite coming to light. I feel that the dialogue and script is cheesy or cliche. I honestly believe the roles were casted appropriately, however the script these actors had to work with felt very juvenile. The supporting characters that were cut out, re-written, or watered down is probably a huge factor in this issue. I often felt that the important scenes were difficult to believe since there wasn't enough background for the watcher to truly grasp all of the emotions at play. When reading this book, I remember the scene when he goes to the UK and "storms" the castle in the pouring rain, and it felt so real and emotional. The movie does a poor job reflecting those emotions. If the target audience for this film is teenagers, maybe they've hit the mark. Overall, I feel this should've been a series instead of a movie so we could really take the time to understand the story instead of rushing through the plot. Still giving 3 stars because I liked the casting for the main characters, and the original idea behind the story.