Step 1: Characters: Most important characters in the book are Louisa Clark and Will Traynor. Louisa Clark is an average girl with a spunky fashion sense, and she was hired by Will’s mother to keep Will company. Will is an adventurous guy who later in his life gets hit by a motorcycle causing him to become a quadriplegic, basically he’s paralyzed from the top of his spinal cord all the way down. Events: The most important events to me are when Will jokes about Louisa giving him a bath, Will’s death, and the epilogue. In the book, Will attends Louisa’s birthday party.
During the party, Louisa’s boyfriend, Patrick, was quite rude to Will and would do anything to show that Louisa was his, but what happened once the party ended and people were saying their goodbye’s, Will decided to tick Patrick off by saying “She certainly gives a goof bed bath. ” The thing is, all Louisa does is keep Will company, but he only said that to anger Patrick, and I found this part to be important because it showed that Will disliked Patrick and that he wanted them to split that way Louisa could be his. Another important event was when Will died. I mean, a main character died so of course it’s important.
But because of his death, it made Louisa realize that there’s more to life, and it also showed her what love was. Lastly, by far the most important part, the epilogue. So in the epilogue Louisa goes to France, and does as Will had instructed her to do. The reason that this is important because it highlight the impact that Will had on Louisa’s life, by having her travel and live the life he wanted her to live. Before him, she was a typical country girl who would remain in the same town, but by the end of the book, she was traveling around the world, and also reliving the memory that he treasured.
Literary Elements: In all honesty, when reading this I didn’t stop for literary elements. I honestly got so into the book that I practically finished the entire book in one sitting. I didn’t want to go back, read the book, and look for them again, but here are just a few ideas I had when reflecting back. Looking back, I noticed the author’s use of imagery. I can’t pinpoint specific examples, but she most especially uses it when describing Louisa’s outfits to have us feel as if we can truly see her right now, and we can gage the weirdness that the character has.
Also, the author’s use of Louisa’s red dress is seen as a symbol of love and hope within the character. Whenever Louisa happens to wear the red dress, it’s whenever she is having a great time with Will such as the orchestra and wedding that they both had attended. Red is typically known for being a seductive, lustful color, so by using that color on Louisa, it symbolizes/foreshadows that the two of them will have a great time with one another. Insights: An observation I noticed in the book, was that the author used Louis’s, Katrina (Louisa’s sister), and Camilla’s (Will’s mother) point of view.
It was great to receive insight from other character perspective, but as I read, I was wondering why she never wrote from Will’s point of view. Maybe because it may have been too depressing? But I feel that the book could have been a lot stronger with how he felt. Don’t get me wrong, this is one of my favorite books, but I just feel like it would have been nice to see his emotions and feel what he felt. To know why he wasn’t willing to live anymore would have taken the book to a whole new dimension. Step 2:
The movie wasn’t much different than the book. The only difference was that the movie skipped out on details that the book had, but it’s understandable since the book covered 6 months of the protagonist’s life. Movies usually have a limit of 2 and half hours, while books can keep going. The reason that they picked these actors and actresses is because they fit the description of each character. The performers truly captured the character’s personality. For Louisa, the actress Emilia Clarke took on the role perfectly.
She truly showed how Louisa is meant to be ordinary, but has the heart the size of country, the way she portrayed her clumsiness and awkwardness in certain situations was spot on. As for Will, actor Sam Claflin did a great job of bringing out Will’s wit when he spoke his lines. Although he didn’t have as many lines as I had hoped for, he made sure the lines he did say were the way the character would have said it. I would have criticized the acting a bit because sometime Emilia Clarke would become over-exaggerated, but that’s about it.
If I had a choice to keep the characters or pick different ones, I would have kept the casting the same. Also, the movie didn’t cut characters out at all; they just didn’t go in depth with each one like the book had. The movie left out a bunch of scenes. I mean they left out the part where Louisa went online searching for advice to prevent Will from taking his life, to the time Will calmed Louisa from a panic attack. It makes sense why they cut those scenes out. The book is written about 6 months of time they spent together, while the movie has to capture it all in about 2 hours.
A lot of small things happened in the book, and they were cute so it made you excited to see it in the movie, but since the director doesn’t want to make it too long, it had to just hit the most important parts. It did affect the movie by not making it as enjoyable since you weren’t able to connect with the characters like you would in the book. I’m almost 100% sure that movie was the same time period as the book. I mean the technology in the book was just as advanced as the technology that we have now and the movie was portrayed in this time period, so I would say it was accurate.
The setting was the exact same. I actually had expected the setting to be more rural since it seemed like there weren’t many people there, but the movie still captured the town to be rural, just not as “ghostly” as I would have expected. I think the movie did a good job portraying the book, but I just wish they spent more time on showing the development of the relationship between Will and Louisa. The movie showed the most important parts and the plot of the book, but it didn’t make you fall in love with Will or make you want to ball up in a fetal position and cry like the book had.
Not a shocker, the book was 10x better than movie. In all honesty, what kept me going in the movie was how attractive Sam Claflin is and the soundtrack. I guess once you read the book, the expectations are so high that you forget the movie will never be as good as the book. If I were the director, I would have added scenes to show them getting closer and closer. I mean the director didn’t show their relationship slowly grow, but rather she made it go from complete strangers to lovers in a matter of hours, when in reality it took months.
Also, like the book, I would’ve shown the different perspectives to see things differently. I wish they showed the mothers emotions and how she wanted to break down when her son finalized his choice of death, or I wanted to see how the sister is trying to help Louisa come up with ideas. If the director did what I suggested, the movie would probably be 4 hours. Step 3: Choices made in the movie: I personally don’t agree with all the choices the creators made just because I feel like they took out half the book.
Like I’ve said before, I understand 2 hours isn’t long enough to personify a book, but I just feel like the movie was quite sloppy. First of all, the director added in some scenes where it was just scenery, and you could’ve used those scenes for lines rather than a view that you can easily get off of google images. I also don’t like how there was a ton of music playing. Don’t get me wrong, I love the soundtrack and have every song downloaded on my phone, but it was getting too much where I feel like I was listening to a Spotify playlist rather than a movie.
Because of all these choices, it made it hard to truly get into the story, and there were also a bunch of blanks that needed to be filled in to get the story. Let’s just say if my mom watched it on her on, she would’ve been confused at some points. How it affected the story: The choices affected the story where it was confusing in a sense, and that it wasn’t really fluid. Rather than feeling you’re a part of the movie, you feel aware that you’re watching one. The movie just didn’t make the audience have the personal connection that the book would’ve given.
I mean how can you, when there are spots that you don’t understand if you hadn’t read the book. Luckily for me, I was able to understand the story, but I had to answer my mom’s questions because she was confused on certain parts since the director never really clarified the importance of that scene. In all honesty, the choices that director made when filming this felt like a mix of The Notebook plot and the film quality of the movie 50 Shades of Grey. Romantic tear-jerker plot, portrayed through a movie of soundtrack rather than script.
What I would change: Honestly, I would change a lot to the movie just because I had expected it to be just like the book. The things I would change about the movie are the events shown, amount of lines given to characters, and the perspective the movie is filmed in. The events shown in the movie are important, but I feel like even the little scenes are important to the story. An example, Will asking Louisa to move in with him when she couldn’t handle living with her parents and her and her boyfriend broke up.
In my opinion, I think it should have been shown because it shows that Will truly loves her, and show him as a nice guy, rather than portray him as selfish for taking his own life. I would also change the lines given to the characters. In the book, Will reminds me of Chandler Bing from Friends, but you didn’t really get that vibe from the movie. Here and there he may have lines where you’ll get the sarcastic charming side, but I wish they showed more of that. Lastly, I would change the perspective of the film.
In my opinion, it would take things to a whole new level by not only showing what Louisa has gone through, but also what Will’s family is feeling, for crying out loud, it would be nice to see what Will was feeling during this time. My Review: Overall, I would give it a 3 out 5 stars. When my mom and I discussed it, she said she liked it because it wasn’t what she had expected, but for me, I didn’t enjoy it because I already know what happens and I feel like the movie lacked the emotion that book had.
I guess for those who didn’t know the book, they’d enjoy it because they came in with not as much expectations as the reader. I love how the author incorporated direct lines from the book and into the script, but I wish I had the same emotions from the book. In the book, it gives you a whirlwind of emotions, but in the movie you just have a sad emotion. Not upsetting, lugubrious, depressing, etc. , you just felt sad for the character.
