Remember when reading the book used to make you excited about seeing the movie? I used to love watching the film in English class after finishing one of the classic novels we had just finished. It was always interesting to see how a filmmaker’s version of a movie differed from the vision that I had formulated in my mind. Nowadays, if I am made aware of this with enough advance notice to see the film, I’ll try to read the book. To say I do this as many of my English teacher friends would be a lie. Still, recent books that I have been able to read before seeing the movie were The Martian (great movie, but better book) and The Maze Runner. I also recently read Paper Towns, which I disliked so much that I will skip the movie. Also, a few years ago, I read In The Heart of the Sea. With apologies to Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, this was THE most descriptive book I have read in my entire life. I had no idea when I read it that a film version would also come, and I am super excited to see this Ron Howard-directed movie when it comes to theaters in a couple of weeks. In any case, the movie rarely lives up to a good book. It’s just impossible to get everything in a great book into a two-hour film. Recently I’ve seen a couple of movies where I’ve wanted to read the book afterward. These have included American Sniper, Room, and Amy Koppelman’s novel I Smile Back. There is a difference, however. American Sniper was my number one movie of 2014, while Room is pushing for that spot on my 2015 list. I Smile Back was a book that I could see as something I might love and be able to relate to better. The movie, however, was highly disappointing.
Continue reading I Smile Back (2015) →