To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018)

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Quote

A teenage girl's secret love letters are exposed and wreak havoc on her love life.

Trailer:

 

Release date: 8/17/18

[dkb]

I've read the books, and can't wait for this! The series was cute and just happy, which this trailer seems to have as well.

[SnoGirl]

I loved it! Super cute, and the high school students actually looked like high school students. I hope they do more movies, if this is a book series, I definitely want more sequels.

One bummer was I was watching with captions, and there were lots of glaring omissions from what characters were saying compared to what they captioned on screen. To the point where I turned it into a game of watch for mistakes. The biggest issues came during fights, the fast talking and whole sentences were just not even captioned well. 

[dkb]

This was super cute! I really really liked it. I'm going to be a cliche and say the book was better, lol.

I know that some things are hard to translate to screen from a book so can give them a pass, but one thing that bothered me was that they didn't include the girls Korean family (their mothers family).  Other than the dad  cooking Korean food in the beginning, there really isn't a mention of how important trying to keep their connection to their mothers culture is.

I think the book ending works much better but since there's no gurantee that a sequel will be made I can see why they went with the ending they did.

Lana Conder is adorable and so was the Kitty actress. Janel Parrish didn't get alot to do, but like seeing the Pretty Little Liars ladies in new things.

Lara Jean and Peter are ❤.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Lana Condor discusses To All the Boys I've Loved Before:

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Jenny Han discusses the book/movie, as well as the process of having the book turned into a movie. Among other things, some of the producers who were interested in the movie didn't understand that the main character had to be Asian.

[Bill1978]

Watched this today. It was cute. Standard teen movie helped passed 90 minutes. I can understand why this was a Netflix movie and not a cinema movie. Early on I was unsure which boy she would end with but it became pretty obvious once the contract was signed. My main issue with the movie is the narrating, I really dislike when a movie does narration but never gives us a reason why the character is narrating for us. A common complaint I have towards works based on YA novels. I thought Love, Simon addressed the initial narration stereotype vey well when it revealed the opening narration was actually an email. I will still recommend people watch the movie, but I wouldn't say it was a Must Stop What You Are Binging And Watch movie. I was also expecting there to be more drama revolving around the letters, the trailer kinda indicated that we would be seeing the response from all 5 boys. I also would have preferred if they had kept the mystery of how the letters got out until the sisters fight. Did the book reveal the identity as early as the movie??

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I thought it was a sweet teen rom com. It wasn't perfect and there were some things I could nitpick, but I don't want to bother because overall I enjoyed it.

One thing I liked was how the movie captured some of those universal high school experiences like looking for someone to eat lunch with and feeling like no one sees you.

I also liked the family scenes. They had some good moments like saying goodbye to your sibling when they leave for college, just hanging out watching tv with your little sister, and wanting to kill that same sister.

I've had this book and another Jenny Han book in my to be read pile for years (I buy too many books so there's always a mountain of unread books) so I don't know if this was handled better in the book, but her interactions with Josh after he got his letter seemed to be missing pieces. He went from being her best friend to Lara Jean refusing to talk to him for like a month until she needed to talk to someone about Peter? I know teenagers can be selfish but DAMN, Lara Jean!

I felt pretty bad for poor Josh. First Margot dumps him, then Lara Jean says everything is fine between them and they are still friends, then he gets a letter from Lara Jean saying she's in love with him and when he tries to talk to her about it, she ignores his calls, avoids his presence, and then finally just tells him that she can't talk to him at all - until she finally breaks down and seeks him out because she wants to talk about her boyfriend who Josh thinks is an ass.

I wish we would have seen more of her friendship with Lucas. I loved when they went to her hotel room to put on Korean facial masks instead of skiing with everyone else.

I, too, thought we would see repercussions from all five letters so it was a little bit disappointing that it ended up really just being the Peter and Josh letters that featured heavily in the movie.

Between this movie and Crazy Rich Asians in theaters this weekend, I hope that studios and producers will see that (1) you can have Asian actors in lead roles and (2) you can have more than one Asian actor in a movie.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

An Asian-American Teen Idol Onscreen, Finally - NY Times op-ed by Jenny Han about why representation matters and why she insisted that Lara Jean had to be Asian in the movie

[tennisgurl]

That was super adorable, glad that I heard about it and decided to give it a watch. I've never read the book, so I dont know what was changed or left out, but I thought it was a super cute teen rom com, which I think is nice, as rom coms have had a rough few years. I like romantic comedy's, in theory, but so many of them are so awful and cliche and riddled with stereotypes that were outdated in 1994, let alone now. This had its tropes as well, but I found it to be endearing instead of annoying. 

Peter and Laura Jean were adorable! The notes! The yogurt! My heart! Plus, its nice to see Jesus 2.0 from The Fosters showing up on my screen again. All the teen characters did seem like teens, enough though I am sure that most of them are older. The family scenes were great too, its nice to see a family that is just nice and gets along, instead of squabbling between the sisters and the dad being a clueless idiot. I mean, he was actually supportive of his daughter dating, and didnt act like it was his job to guard her from ever so much as looking at someone she might like romantically. 

Also fun seeing Jenna from PLL here, although she always makes me a bit suspicious now. I keep expecting her to pull out some creepy doll from somewhere or something. 

Through my job I talk to a LOT of high students, and they all love this movie, which makes me happy. Its good that teens (and everyone) can have something like this to watch, especially as this has such good POC representation. My one complaint is that the letters didnt really make that much of a splash, beyond making things awkward with Peter and Josh. But thats about it. 

[sacrebleu]

This was really sweet, anyone besides me get a teen-aged Mark Ruffalo vibe from the guy playing Peter? Maybe it's just the California mush mouth way of talking, but I was trying to figure out who he reminded me of, and then it came to me... he's a taller, cooler version of Matt Flamhaff (13 Goin on 30)

[EyewatchTV211]

7 hours ago, sacrebleu said:

This was really sweet, anyone besides me get a teen-aged Mark Ruffalo vibe from the guy playing Peter? Maybe it's just the California mush mouth way of talking, but I was trying to figure out who he reminded me of, and then it came to me... he's a taller, cooler version of Matt Flamhaff (13 Goin on 30)

I think the Entertainment Weekly reviewer mentioned Mark Ruffalo. I also got some vibes of Matthew Lawrence. 

[Phebemarie]

This movie hooked me from the beginning when Lara Jean's first romantic fantasy of Josh was a silly rip-off of one of my favorite scenes from "A Room With a View".  

[truthaboutluv]

On 8/20/2018 at 4:01 PM, sacrebleu said:

This was really sweet, anyone besides me get a teen-aged Mark Ruffalo vibe from the guy playing Peter?

Most definitely. The resemblance was even a little freaky at times. Co-signing with others in loving this movie and so did my sister who has now watched it like four times. Like others, I haven't read the book, although it's literally been on my Kindle for years, so at first I wasn't sure which guy she was going to end up with. However, from the scene in the parking lot, where Lara Jean almost accidentally ran Peter down, I was rooting for it to be him.  I just liked his vibe and his vibe with her and more importantly, I felt like a relationship with him was way less complicated than dating the guy who dated your sister for two years, whether or not he was your best friend first. 

And if my social media timelines are anything to go by, plenty of people thought the film was adorable. I'm just glad it seems to be surpassing that awful, hot mess The Kissing Booth as the most popular original teen movie on Netflix. Speaking of said hot mess, I searched but could not find a thread for it, so if there is one, can someone direct me to it so I can unleash all my negative feelings about it? Thanks in advance.

[paulvdb]

I liked this movie. But I generally don't like unanswered questions so I want to know if Gen was telling the truth when she said that she didn't post the video.

 

8 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

And if my social media timelines are anything to go by, plenty of people thought the film was adorable. I'm just glad it seems to be surpassing that awful, hot mess The Kissing Booth as the most popular original teen movie on Netflix. Speaking of said hot mess, I searched but could not find a thread for it, so if there is one, can someone direct me to it so I can unleash all my negative feelings about it? Thanks in advance.

There is no thread for it, but you can start one if you want to post all your negative feelings about that movie.

[truthaboutluv]

1 hour ago, paulvdb said:

There is no thread for it, but you can start one if you want to post all your negative feelings about that movie.

Okay, thanks. After seeing a thread for this movie, I thought maybe I just couldn't find the one for that movie. 

[EyewatchTV211]

28 minutes ago, truthaboutluv said:

Okay, thanks. After seeing a thread for this movie, I thought maybe I just couldn't find the one for that movie. 

Or just post your thoughts i the general Romantic Comedies thread if you don't want to start a whole new one. 

[truthaboutluv]

39 minutes ago, VMepicgrl said:

Or just post your thoughts i the general Romantic Comedies thread if you don't want to start a whole new one. 

Okay, thanks. I'll probably do that since I'm not sure there's enough interest for a whole thread about it, since one wasn't even created in the first place.

[emjohnson03]

On 8/20/2018 at 4:01 PM, sacrebleu said:

This was really sweet, anyone besides me get a teen-aged Mark Ruffalo vibe from the guy playing Peter? Maybe it's just the California mush mouth way of talking, but I was trying to figure out who he reminded me of, and then it came to me... he's a taller, cooler version of Matt Flamhaff (13 Goin on 30)

YES! The minute he was on screen I was like, that could be a teenage Mark! He sounded like him exactly! 

I thought this movie was beyond adorable and something John Hughes would have totally loved. It felt very his style. I am pretty sure Netflix would do the next story since this got great reviews and everything about it clicked.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 8/20/2018 at 11:06 AM, tennisgurl said:

Also fun seeing Jenna from PLL here, although she always makes me a bit suspicious now. I keep expecting her to pull out some creepy doll from somewhere or something. 

Hahaha, same here! Like every time she went to hug someone, I was like WATCH OUT! SHE MIGHT TRY TO MURDER YOU!

[biakbiak]

When will people learn to scrub their social media if they are homophobic and racist when you get in a popular movie, better yet don’t be those things! 

I thought the movie was adorable and Lana is delightful.

Edited August 23, 2018 by biakbiak

[ElectricBoogaloo]

2 hours ago, biakbiak said:

When will people learn to scrub their social media if they are homophobic and racist when you get in a popular movie, better yet don’t be those things!

Seriously. I didn't find the actor appealing to begin with (I thought both he and the actor who played Peter were the only two who looked too old to be in high school) so I'd be fine with him being replaced in the sequel (I haven't read the second or third books yet so I have no idea if Josh is in either of them). Honestly, the actress playing Lara Jean is the only one I need to carry over to the next movie.

[biakbiak]

6 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

thought both he and the actor who played Peter were the only two who looked too old to be in high school)

Except for the extras. They had some old looking extras. It was the little production things like the old extras, every time we see the contract after Peter writes SKI TRIP in all caps in a highlighter it is in a different font/pen/script etc. However the one thing that really made me be like WTF? Is when she gets on the bus to go home it’s actually the female extras that were applauding and cheering more than the male extras. There were tons of little things like that bothered me.

[EyewatchTV211]

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

Except for the extras. They had some old looking extras. It was the little production things like the old extras, every time we see the contract after Peter writes SKI TRIP in all caps in a highlighter it is in a different font/pen/script etc. However the one thing that really made me be like WTF? Is when she gets on the bus to go home it’s actually the female extras that were applauding and cheering more than the male extras. There were tons of little things like that bothered me.

He wrote it in highlighter one time? I noticed the writing was different when it was shown like 3 times but don't remember a highlighter. The first time, when he was actually writing it, it looked like he was using a pen but making a million lines to make it super thick. Then it was magically thin when they showed the final contract but in weird, bumpy writing. Then when she tears it up later, it's in nicer handwriting but still just one line of ink. 

[methodwriter85]

15 hours ago, biakbiak said:

When will people learn to scrub their social media if they are homophobic and racist when you get in a popular movie, better yet don’t be those things! 

I thought the movie was adorable and Lana is delightful.

I'm kind of surprised this didn't get brought up when Happy Death Day brought him some attention, but I guess To All The Boys I've Loved Before are getting some really dedicated fans?

Man, what a shame. I thought he was really cute in Happy Death Day. In this case, they lucked out he's not the main love interest.

It's kind of funny, re: ages given that Janel Parrish is like 29 or 30 and she's playing fresh out of high school. Gotta love those Asian genes. Noah Centineo didn't look too old for playing 17; I bought it largely because he's supposed to be a jock and those guys always tended to look older, especially lacrosse players. He also nailed how guys at that age tend to act. Israel Broussard is definitely starting to push it for playing 16/17.

[truthaboutluv]

8 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Noah Centineo didn't look too old for playing 17; I bought it largely because he's supposed to be a jock and those guys always tended to look older, especially lacrosse players. He also nailed how guys at that age tend to act.

Yeah I had no problem buying him as a teenage boy, which is why I wasn't surprised to learn that he's only 22 in real life so not that much older. I think he still believably pulls off high school heartthrob.

 

On 8/22/2018 at 11:10 PM, biakbiak said:

When will people learn to scrub their social media if they are homophobic and racist when you get in a popular movie, better yet don’t be those things! 

Thing is, this doesn't seem like it was some questionable stuff from years ago. Apparently some of the stuff was as recent as a month ago, which by the way makes his "apology" seem even more like bullshit. I think maybe his getting by after Happy Death Day, as the poster above noted, might have lured him into a false sense of comfort that it wouldn't be an issue. 

But while I remember hearing about Happy Death Day, I don't think it got nearly the social media love that All The Boys I Loved is getting. The movie is becoming like a viral sensation, with sites like Buzzfeed, Popsugar, etc. unable to go a day without posting about it and gushing about wanting their own Peter, etc.

And then there's the diversity/race factor with the lead being Asian and coupled with the recent success and media blitz around Crazy Rich Asians. I just think all of that created a perfect storm for someone to really look at his page and this to pick up steam. 

 

21 hours ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

(I haven't read the second or third books yet so I have no idea if Josh is in either of them).

Haven't read them either but seen a lot of comments by people who have since this story broke and they all say that he's barely in the next two and that it would be very easy to just write out the character.

Edited August 24, 2018 by truthaboutluv

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, truthaboutluv said:

Haven't read them either but seen a lot of comments by people who have, since this story broke and they all say that he's barely in the next two and that it would be very easy to just write out the character.

Yeah I haven’t read the books but I read the wiki synopsis for the other two and the way the ended this movie makes writing him out even easier: (book spoiler not movie spoiler) 

Spoiler

The first book ends after the ski trip with them still being in a fake relationship and the second book opens with the fight between Josh, Lara and Peter where Margot finds out about the Josh crush and then Kitty giving her the notes Peter wrote and they decide to start dating for real.

 

6 hours ago, VMepicgrl said:

but don't remember a highlighter.

It looked like a blue highlighter I have, it might have just been a marker, regardless each time they showed it after it was in a different spot on the contract so they apparently had three or four different versions which was weird.

[twoods]

This movie was so cute. The lead carried this movie well and had great chemistry with her fake boyfriend. I liked Noah in the Fosters so glad he’s getting a little attention from this movie. I also liked the relationship between the sisters and their dad (John Corbett really makes everything better). 

[EyewatchTV211]

4 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

Yeah I had no problem buying him as a teenage boy, which is why I wasn't surprised to learn that he's only 22 in real life so not that much older. I think he still believably pulls of high school heartthrob.

 

I bought him as a teenage boy more than I bought Janel Parrish being 18. Which I guess should be the case since he's closer to the character's age than she is, if I read correctly. 

I liked that there seemed to be decent diversity in the background actors at the school, too. I was trying to pay attention to that. It reminded me more of my high school than a lot of these other movies have. 

[Rilla-my-Rilla]

5 hours ago, biakbiak said:

Yeah I haven’t read the books but I read the wiki synopsis for the other two and the way the ended this movie makes writing him out even easier

I have read the 3 books and yeah, they could easily write Josh out if they wanted to. They moved up some of the plot from the 2nd book or skipped over things, plus I think they tied up things with Lara Jean and Josh well enough for that to be it.

Lara Jean could just have a voice over saying Josh got really into the 60s and no one ever saw him again.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

The latest drama: several videos of Noah Centineo (Peter) have leaked. Most of them were of him masturbating, and one was of him snapchatting with some girl while he walked through the subway and he asked her about squirting. I guess he should be glad that Israel Broussard's tweets were way worse so everyone is focused on that scandal!

ETA: This is the video of him walking through the subway (I haven't seen the other videos because no thanks!):

https://twitter.com/xXjaviiXx/status/1032031518183641088/video/1

Edited August 24, 2018 by ElectricBoogaloo

[truthaboutluv]

People aren't focusing on it because it's not a "scandal", imo. It's Noah's privacy being violated the same way many female actresses were a few years ago but because he's a guy, there isn't nearly the same outrage. And in fact I've seen many comments online where many women are all thirstily asking for links and running to watch. The whole thing is hypocrisy at its finest and disgusting. That and also, this happened a few years ago, when he was on The Fosters. It's just come back up because of the success of All The Boys I've Loved Before.

[methodwriter85]

Wasn't Snapchat (not that I use it as I am in my 30's) specifically invented because they were supposed to dissolve thus keeping your privacy? I guess the internet really is in pen. And oh my god, a 19-ish year old guy masturbating? OMG!

[biakbiak]

Adorable news from behind the scenes!

 

[Silver Raven]

One of the extras (I think he may have had a couple of lines is Youtber/Viner King Bach, who is 30.

A review from a guy whose Video channel I like to watch, commenting while he watched.  Warning, probably some NSFW language.

[methodwriter85]

I've recently got into him. Also, his voice has kind of a James Franco vibe, in case that trips your "Do not want" triggers. Anyway, I found myself agreeing with a lot of his points, especially about how things kind of fall apart at the ski trip and you can REALLY see how low budget this was since they really don't anything with the location.

I also kind of felt like Laura should have danced in that diner scene with her dad. THAT would have been awesome.

[twoods]

I agree with those that got a Mark Ruffalo/13 Going on 30 vibe from Noah. The way he said “Woah woah woah” and his voice in this movie is so eerily similar to Mark’s. I hope he continues to churn out these cute movies because he plays the role of adorable boyfriend so well.

 

I have watched this movie three times in the past week and now need an intervention. It has been forever since a movie this cute has come out, and I can’t stop watching it!

[Scarlett45]

For some reason I thought I had commented on this thread. 

 

This is fav Netflix romantic comedy so far (second to Set It Up). It was great to see a teen rom com where the characters could be teens, but intelligent teens. The emotional beats felt genuine. I was also tickled by the Dad being an Ob/Gyn, growing up as the teenage daughter of an Ob/Gyn (my Mom though), the condom scene tickled me. 

[Empress1]

One of my best friends has watched this movie four times in a row. She's obsessed with it. I watched it about a week ago and I liked a lot of things about it:

• I thought John Corbett was so sweet. He wasn't clueless and he didn't have a "let me get my shotgun" approach to his daughters dating. He wanted them to be careful but wasn't trying to lock them away from the world.
• The sisters weren't rivals, they were allies and really loved each other. When Kitty told Peter, essentially, "I don't know you like that, you may call me Katherine," I died.
• Lara Jean didn't change anything about herself to "get the guy;" he just fell for her. There was no ditching her friends to join the popular crowd, no makeover ... she was who she was, and when she changed (e.g. getting over her fear of driving) it was on her own terms.
• I LOVED that Jenny Han held fast to her determination not to let studios whitewash the lead. The Korean yogurt smoothie thing might have seemed small, but it wasn't.

On 8/25/2018 at 10:14 PM, methodwriter85 said:

I've recently got into him. Also, his voice has kind of a James Franco vibe, in case that trips your "Do not want" triggers. Anyway, I found myself agreeing with a lot of his points, especially about how things kind of fall apart at the ski trip and you can REALLY see how low budget this was since they really don't anything with the location.

I also kind of felt like Laura should have danced in that diner scene with her dad. THAT would have been awesome.

I was sure she was going to and was a little let down that she didn't.

Edited September 11, 2018 by Empress1

[TrininisaScorp]

I feel like between this and Crazy Rich Asians there is some new life being put into the rom com again.  I like a good, not lady bashing, rom com, and a good one has been few and far between.

To echo many of you, I adored the family dynamic in this movie.  The love and annoyance between the sisters, and their relationship with their dad.  I ADORE the exchange between Kitty and John Corbett's character re: menstruation.  It was very amusing. 

I love that Lara Jean is so likeable, yet flawed, but she doesn't change who she is or tries to fix the dude.  Her relationship with Peter is just precious first love goodness at its finest. Peter K is pretty great.  The chemistry between the leads was really good.  All of their important scenes (e.g. the letter reveal on the track, the "plan", the diner, the party, the kitchen, the hot tub, etc) hit the right notes and I just really wanted in my cold, dark heart for these 2 crazy kids to truly fall for each other. 

Noah Centineo is having A MOMENT, right?  I have a wee crush!  The voice and mannerisms are really a bit of Ruffalo back in the day (13 going on 30 or that terrible movie with Paltrow he did) and Matthew Lawrence (besides JTT, he was my man back in the day), and he is really charming.  

[truthaboutluv]

So I recently read To All The Boys I've Loved Before. I've actually had it for years but just never had any interest in reading it, until the film. After completing the book, I can say with complete certainty that the movie was way better. I think all the changes they made for the film were for the best. I think the biggest thing for me is that book Lara Jean and Peter weren't nearly as endearing as movie Lara Jean and Peter. Honestly, I was totally confused when Lara Jean decided she liked Peter in the book  because I couldn't figure out when and how that happened. And in my opinion that should definitely not be the case for a book where the author has way more opportunity to write conversations/build connection/etc, as opposed to a movie that's limited by time.

The sisters' relationship was also way better in the movie than in the book. Sure they were close in the book but Kitty for example was not nearly as endearing as the character was in the movie. In the movie she was adorably precocious while in the book she just came across as a straight up brat at times. Which actually ties into a major change between the movie and the book, that I thought was for the best - i.e. Kitty's motivation for sending the letters. Josh was also way less annoying in the movie than in the book and that's because his presence was thankfully significantly reduced. So in conclusion, loved the movie, don't really have much desire to complete the book series. 

[biakbiak]

5 hours ago, truthaboutluv said:

So in conclusion, loved the movie, don't really have much desire to complete the book series. 

I read the other two books because I am a fast reader and they are YA so it only took a few hours and I would say they aren’t really worth reading. Also, I know because of the popularity they will probably make the other two into movies but there will have to be significant changes because the plots are very thin.

[truthaboutluv]

24 minutes ago, biakbiak said:

and I would say they aren’t really worth reading.

I believe it. In truth, it's part of the reason despite having the book for years, I never read it. The synopsis didn't really excite me much. And to be honest, I only read the book after loving the movie because I saw some comments on another board by some who while they liked the movie, were upset about some changes and seemed to prefer the books. I didn't read what they were upset about because I didn't want to be spoiled but decided to read the book to see for myself. I actually am curious to go find those comments now since I can't imagine why anyone would have loved the book more. 

Btw, being unimpressed with the book synopsis is the other reason I have never been interested in her other triology, The Summer I Turned Pretty. Just reading the descriptions told me that it's likely awful. However, apparently we're in the minority because I swear her books seem to show up on every Young Adult Best Of lists. 

eta: Okay, so I found those comments and wow, YMMV indeed because apparently some really thought the book was so superior and thought the movie rushed Lara Jean and Peter's falling for each other while the book developed it better. Um, how? Book Peter 

Spoiler

literally was chasing after Gen multiple times, going over to her house numerous times while being pissy at Lara Jean for talking to Josh, basically angrily told Lara Jean in no uncertain terms he would not cut Gen out of his life and yet out of nowhere, Lara Jean decided she had real feelings for him. Say what now? Many of them went on about the auction and yeah it sounded cute but okay, they went to an auction where Lara Jean spent time talking to a bitter old guy and getting a reindeer. Did the movie really lose much by that not being included? And I couldn't believe that some were upset about their changing Kitty's reasoning for sending the letters because book Kitty was a HBIC or whatever, while movie Kitty was too precious. Except for me, the book kept going on about the Song girls and their sisterhood while showing them doing some really mean and spiteful shit to each other. The movie on the other hand actually sold me on the sister bond and connection.

Edited September 30, 2018 by truthaboutluv

[twoods]

1 hour ago, biakbiak said:

I read the other two books because I am a fast reader and they are YA so it only took a few hours and I would say they aren’t really worth reading. Also, I know because of the popularity they will probably make the other two into movies but there will have to be significant changes because the plots are very thin.

Ugh I just read the second one (I got it from the library before the first one came off of hold), and I couldn’t agree more. It wasn’t very good. I absolutely loved the movie and hope that the second one shines unlike the book. The dialogue was clunky and I felt like something was missing, and some of the chapters gave me whiplash because they didn’t flow very well. 

[Athena]

They could merge the plots of the second and third books together. I didn't like the plot of the second book much, but the third book doesn't have any plot. Nothing much happens. I did keep reading because the books are very easy to read. I got use to the characters after awhile, but by the middle of the third book, I was getting very tired of Lara Jean as well. I think Lana adds a lot to Lara Jean character.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I read all three books a few weeks ago after I watched the movie and I agree that books two and three could definitely be merged into one movie. As @Athena pointed out, there isn't much plot to the third book. A lot of it is Lara Jean's internal monologue but you could sum up the entire book as "Lara Jean waits for her college acceptance letters," which I don't think needs an entire 90 minute movie.

Now that I've read the books, I agree with the previous posters who said that the movie improved upon the book and I also agree that some of the improvement is due to Lana Condor. She brings a lot to the role and makes Lara Jean more relatable and sympathetic.

Normally I prefer the book versions of anything to the movie/tv show versions. I didn't dislike the books but I thought the movie made Lara Jean more likable.

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Now that I've read the books, I agree with the previous posters who said that the movie improved upon the book and I also agree that some of the improvement is due to Lana Condor. She brings a lot to the role and makes Lara Jean more relatable and sympathetic.

To be fair in interviews Jenny Han suggested that both Lana and Noah brought things that weren’t in the book but lauded Lana and I agree because the later two books I find her smug and dismissive of Peter’s feelings even when the plot has him behave completely in the wrong: 

Spoiler

The fact that her dad is cheating on her mom doesn’t explain why he continues to support her after he finds out that she was responsible for not only filming the video but making it public in multiple ways and not “killing” her in the the game he doesn’t care about. 

I really wanted to like the author and the story she told but her take seems to be stupid garbage.

Edited October 1, 2018 by biakbiak

[bijoux]

On 01. 10. 2018. at 10:07 AM, biakbiak said:

To be fair in interviews Jenny Han suggested that both Lana and Noah brought things that weren’t in the book but lauded Lana and I agree because the later two books I find her smug and dismissive of Peter’s feelings even when the plot has him behave completely in the wrong: 

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The fact that her dad is cheating on her mom doesn’t explain why he continues to support her after he finds out that she was responsible for not only filming the video but making it public in multiple ways and not “killing” her in the the game he doesn’t care about. 

I really wanted to like the author and the story she told but her take seems to be stupid garbage.

I'm confused. 

Spoiler

Whose dad is cheating, Gen's?

I listened to the first book and some of the second book. I more or less gave up where the movie ended. The narrator was actually pretty good when it came to Lara Jean (but so, so bad when it came to Peter) and there were moments when I genuinely started laughing. Like her comment about how she forgot how well Peter responded to positive encouragement. I'm not sure whether it made it into the movie or not, but it was hilarious. I ended up giving up because the constant retreading of the same issues  grew tiring. This is where the movie benefited from  condensed storytelling. This could have to do with the fact that I'm twice the characters' age, so not really that in tune with teenage angst. Hell, one of the things I found most impressive was Dr. Covey. Such a great and untypical figure for this sort of movie. Usually it's a) you're not leaving the house or laying your eyes on a boy until you're 50, or b) completely fucking clueless.

Plus, there's also the issue of Peter, who isn't really anything much in the book, but he came alive for me at the track in the movie. When he clearly stated he was flattered but uninterested because of where he was, I was genuinely impressed. He was to the point and not in any way condescending, which is a hard trick to pull off in that situation for people way past high school.

Overall, I think the cast gels really well with their roles and adds something. Except for the girl playing Gen. I know Gen isn't very developed on paper, but she was noticeably bad. I appreciated that confrontation in the school bathroom though. I don't think that was in the book. I had to pause to finish laughing at, It was toungless, you psycho!

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, bijoux said:

I'm confused

Yes to your question.

[Athena]

6 hours ago, bijoux said:

Overall, I think the cast gels really well with their roles and adds something. Except for the girl playing Gen. I know Gen isn't very developed on paper, but she was noticeably bad. I appreciated that confrontation in the school bathroom though. I don't think that was in the book. I had to pause to finish laughing at, It was toungless, you psycho!

This did appear in the book I think. Probably sometime in book two but Gen always resented the kiss Lara Jean and Peter had when they were 12. 

I agree with your other points especially about Dr Covey. I liked him in the books as well and I really liked that they cast John Corbett. They portray Dr Covey as more nerdy/introverted in the books, but Corbett has a lot of charisma. I was never crazy about his longer hair when he was in My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Serendipity, but the grey has made him even more attractive.