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Reviews
Everything, Everything (2017)
If You Loved The Book, You May Not Like The Movie...
Warning: This review is all over the place, because so are my thoughts right now. I may rewrite it at some point. I also may not. :P
So, I didn't know this book existed until I heard the movie was coming out and then the first thing I did was read the book. Big mistake.
This is one of those movies that you kind of want to use the book to slap the director/producer/writer across the face with and yell, "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!?"
The book is lovely. It's the story of a girl with SCID (bubble boy syndrome), who is content with her life and her situation. She can't go outside, so she loses herself in books and the routine of her life, which includes online schooling, life with her doctor-mother (who works outside the home), and her nurse Carla who monitors her during the day. Madeline is a trustworthy girl, who is loving, caring, and trusting of the few people in her life. She loves to read and (as stated at the beginning of the book) has probably read more books than you ever have in your life. Although she can never go anywhere or lend her books to anyone, she always puts her name on the inside cover with a "reward if found" note that usually contains a day spent with her, or a day visiting the Hawaiian state fish - the humu humu nuku nuku apua'a.
When the book starts, Olly is moving in next door and from the moment she sees him run up the outside of his home (parkour), her obsession switches from her books to him and his family. She starts cataloging his life and each of his family member's schedules, which includes observations about his parents' tumultuous relationship and how it affects everyone in the family - his father's abusiveness, his mother's cowardice, and how he disappears onto the roof (a place she can't observe) for hours at a time.
Olly attempts to meet Madeline when he brings over a bundt cake his mom baked for the neighbors, but her mother refuses the bundt cake and to allow him access to Madeline. So Olly uses creativity to attract Madeline's attention by anthropomorphizing the indestructible bundt cake via window theater. It takes a few tries for her to allow him to see her find this humorous and when he finally gets her to laugh, he immediately writes his email address on the window and their email relationship begins.
Madeline is a character who is content until she meets Olly. Olly is a character who is constantly running away until he meets Madeline.
BUT YOU SEE HARDLY ANY OF THIS IN THE FILM!
Themes in the book: Books are amazing. Hawaii. Being content. Self-protection and saving others from abuse. Learning there's more to life than your four walls. Honesty and forgiveness.
Themes in the movie: Not being content. Wanting more. Oh, he's cute. Risking everything for a cute boy. Liars don't deserve forgiveness. True love and whatever.
They turned Madeline into someone who isn't content with her life and is constantly thinking about what's beyond her own walls. They turned Olly into someone who's just kind of meh. You see almost none of his family drama, and the parts you do see don't align with who his family is supposed to be. At one point, in the book he stands between his mother and father to prevent his father from beating his mother, but in the movie they made him the one who was confronting the dad and the mom is nowhere in sight. That isn't true to who the character is at all.
I realize they had to cut a lot for time, but they added characters that didn't belong, they cut characters that are important, they cut themes that are important, they cut narration and dialogue that is important and even though I read the book before watching the film, there were things that clearly would not have made sense without the knowledge of the book to fill in the gaps.
I was so hoping for this to be a good movie, and it's just OK. It could have been so much better.
Strings (2015)
Why the low score?
It's a heartfelt story about a kid who feels lost and unwanted learning how to cope with his issues and give to others what he never received. While I thought that some of the details along the way were unnecessary to the plot, they were kind of necessary for the character development. The casting was good, the storyline was good, the acting was pretty good, and all in all I'd rate the movie about 8/10, but because it was scored so low I felt the need to boost it with a 10/10. I'd say it's worth a watch. If anything, I enjoyed it.