vendredi 3 mars 2017
9 Major Changes Between Before I Fall the Movie and the Book
We love a good book-to-movie adaptation, but chances are, if you've read the book, you've got an eagle-eye out for the inevitable differences from the pages. Before I Fall is no different; the central story remains the same, but tweaks have been made throughout. Before you panic, Sam is still one of the most popular girls in school, she still dies in a car crash then repeatedly wakes up the next day (though it's not as clear in the film how many times she relives the day), and she still has a sh*tty boyfriend and a supercute guy crushing on her. We chatted directly with author Lauren Oliver about some of the changes - take a look and see if you caught them all!
1. Little things throughout Sam's day are different.
Kent writes her a poem instead of drawing her a sketch, the parking space isn't an issue (no one has to walk .22 miles to get to class), the girls find out about Juliet's suicide from their cells rather than from Ally's mom - all inconsequential details that were likely cut for time and/or the fact that every teenager in America now has their own cell phone.
2. Sam doesn't skip class with Lindsay to go to frozen yogurt.
This is a bit of a larger change because it's a whole side plot in the books. Sam skips class, goes to TCBY with Lindsay, sees Alex and Anna eating at the Chinese restaurant, and that leads to Sam telling Alex's girlfriend about his cheating ways during the party. "You have to make a lot of decisions about what to include in movies cause you have less time," Oliver said during our interview. This was just collateral damage!
3. Anna isn't "the other woman" in a relationship, she's a lesbian.
While the whole Anna/Alex relationship doesn't occur in the film, the writers found another reason for her to be an outcast: the character is a lesbian. So, why was this put in? "There are ways in which my real high school experience did flow into Before I Fall," Oliver said, speaking about how the original Alex and Anna were based on people she knew. She went on to say that more characters became diverse in the movie scrip to reflect how America looks, rather than just her own town. "They included way more diverse casting, which is excellent."
4. Juliet's story goes off-script.
Rather than showing up at the party and calling each girl a "bitch," Juliet whips out more colorful examples in the movie. She calls Lindsay a bitch, while the others are "drunk" and "pathetic." We also don't get to meet Juliet's sister, even though the character who hands Sam her rose (the sister, in the books) is included in the movie. "To me, they're not sisters," said Oliver. "They're just separate characters in that universe. To me, she still has a sister, we just never see her."
5. A lot of small personal details have been dropped.
The girls don't smoke, Lindsay isn't portrayed as bulimic in the film, and the song with which kids used to taunt Sam as a kid is different. Again, filmmakers have to consider a run time and they probably don't want to promote teenage smoking, but there is another reason some of the stuff was cut. "Senior lot and smoking behind the tennis courts and all that stuff, I mean, that was actually just kind of pulled from my own memories of high school," said Oliver. "But it wasn't narratively always the right choice or the right story. I just didn't know how to make different ones."
6. The music is different.
Oliver mentions several songs over the course of the book, including "No More Drama" by Mary J. Blige, which plays every single time Sam relives the day. The music choices are plucked from Oliver's own experiences, but the filmmakers give the soundtrack a bit of an update. Artists like Grimes, Lolawolf, and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are used instead.
7. Sam doesn't make out with her Mr. Daimler.
In the book, there's one scandalous day when Sam comes onto Mr. Daimler and he ends up making out with her. It's a turning point because she realizes she's actually disgusted by him and he is a creep, just like Kent has been saying. In the film, she sexily teases him in front of the class, but he doesn't take advantage of her.
8. The timeline with Kent is different.
Sam's pursuit of Kent varies ever so slightly in the film. Events like their kiss happen at different times, and though most of Kent's backstory remains the same, it's Kent's father that had died, rather than his grandfather.
9. Sam has sex with Rob.
This may be the biggest change of all: During one of the days, Sam goes through with losing her virginity to a drunken Rob. "I actually had written a scene like that in my first draft that they made me cut it because they thought it was too upsetting," Oliver said, referring to her book. "It is icky in a way that is realistic and lonely and just a wrong choice, but not out of the realm of what unfortunately many people will experience in their lifetime . . . Then to immediately cut to seeing her have this wonderful interaction with Kent, it's a pretty strong statement about how women's worths are not determined by their sexual choices."
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