before i start, i haven't blogged in a while because i haven't read anything new. "war and peace" is taking forever to read and i have been working a lot so lo siento but will be better in the future.
second, this isn't a movie i checked out but saw in theaters and it isn't based on a book i checked out, but it is a book that i absolutely loved in high school. and so i decided to blog because it is one of my all-time favorite books (and sadly not one of my all-time favorite movie.)
i remember finding in at the bookstore and since it was an MTV book, decided to give it a go. plus the title sounded interested. i read it my sophomore or junior year, my friend stephen warren ruined my copy by highlighting a line about masturbation in it, and i think that happen in our sophomore english class. but regardless i love it, i love it so much that at the mention of it, my heart gushes with love for it.
it was my favorite book in high school. i read it a handful of times throughout high school. i made a mixed cd of the mixed tape that charlie gave patrick for secret santa and listened to it constantly. i also recited the poem that he wrote for a 4H speech competition. (it was pretty heavy but i won a medal). and i started picking up pennies and sharing the luck just like stoner bob said, i would also tell people "stoner bob says . . .". i was kinda obsessed with it.
so when i first saw a trailer for the film i was not excited but scared. i was scared that they would a) ruin something near and dear to me and b) take something that i felt like was my own little secret book and turn into this huge public fad. (the book deserves success but not the trendy let's read it cos emma watson is in it but more of the word of mouth (which trust me in high school i tried to get everyone to read it). so i was not planning on seeing it. but then i talked to people about it and discovered that chbosky wrote (well, adapted his own novel, that sounds very charlie kaufmanesque) and directed it, so decided it would be true to the book and decide to watch it.
i was expecting to be in tears over it. but i wasn't. i was kinda disappointed and the only reason i can think of is that my love for the book is so great that any movie would have failed. i mean the author made the freakin movie, it was his vision i initially loved and eventually saw. but i wasn't filled with warm fuzzies like i expected. and i'm not sure why. i mean the casting was great, everyone seemed like their character, i mean patrick was amazing and charlie was charlie. and who
doesn't love emma watson and "anne"?!? also i love the actress that plays his aunt though i don't know her name. and i wanted to hug paul rudd as his english teacher. i loved that the tunnel song was bowie's "heroes". the rocky horror scenes were great. but i still didn't connect like i thought i would. i got tear-eyed during some moments but no crying. and oddly one of the most emotional scenes for me was the dance with the "living room" routine because it was straight up my best friend miguel and i at our 8th grade graduation dance.
i will add that i was disappointed that chbosky edited out the poem that charlie gives to all of them at christmas. its sad but one of my favorite things about the book. i also did not like how he tried to tie in "something" to the aunt verses it being sam's favorite song.** i would have also like to have seen stoner bob share his penny wisdom.
and i'm not saying its a bad film. it's a great film and if you are reading this, go see it! i might go again. everyone did a great job. it just wasn't for me. but it did inspire me to dig up my old copy and re-read. i last read it probably my senior year though it did travel with me to college. but didn't re-read it recently because i figured that the story not so fresh in my head would be better for movie watching. but not the case.
i would also like to add that the douchebag sitting behind me, annoyed the hell out of me which could have caused my un-enjoyment of the film. he was not the brightest bulb in the pack and kept on asking his girlfriend questions. he also ruined a scene between patrick and charlie because of his homophobia to which i gave him a dirty look in the dark and debated lecturing him out of the film. also his girlfriend laughed inappropriately during a scene with charlie and sam. i hate how immature/ignorant people can be. it was at the landmark, i expect more from their audience.
but go see it and fall in love with the movie and then read the book and fall into deeper love with it.
**blogger note: i just finished rereading "the perks" and realized that i was wrong about this. in my head, sam had played "something" for him as her friend song. but not the case. sorry. (12.12.12)
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