You can’t take things for granted. You might be lucky enough to get a second chance in life to do something, but even then, you have to grab it or it will go away. That is the lesson you learn with Love, Rosie, the film based on Cecelia Ahern’s novel Where Rainbows End.
This is the story of Rosie (Lily Collins) and Alex (Sam Claflin), who have been friends since they were five years old and who, because they are afraid of telling how they feel and because they are stupid enough to show it, keep missing their chances to be together, whether it is because he moves away, because she marries another man or because, as I said, they take each other for granted. But mostly it is because they are scared.
British romantic comedies always tend to have more depth than your usual rom-com. It might be the landscapes or the accents, who knows, but on this occasion this is supported by the excellent source material of Ahern’s book and the performances of Collins and Claflin, who succeed in portraying a pair of characters who first appear as 18-year-old teenagers and who are 30 years old by the end of the film. I always find it must be a difficult task to play someone as a teenager and as an adult, but both actors pull it off successfully.
It is a film worth watching and one that will leave you with a bittersweet sensation. Don’t worry, it’s not like the other film based on a Cecelia Ahern novel, P.S. I Love You. There is no traumatic heart-breaking and the ending is not a sad one, although you might shed a few tears. But it will be because you get invested in the characters’ lives and suffer their miseries and difficulties.
So go and watch the movie. And then, read the book.
“So go and watch the movie. And then, read the book.”
That’s SOP for me. Film or TV program first; book second.
A book is so often an expanded, enriched version of a movie or series. That’s why I won’t be reading GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire tomes until after the HBO series ends.
Fans keep complaining that the series is departing from the books. I say great! New experiences await me.
I agree. Reading the book first usually makes you devalue the movie, no matter how good it might be in itself
Made that discovery a few decades back when I picked up (literally; because someone had left it behind on a couch) Summer of ’42, by Herman Raucher. First and last book I’ve ever read non-stop from cover to cover.
When I saw the movie, I was hugely disappointed. Funny thing, the author must have felt the same way. He wrote the screenplay, saw the movie (I’m assuming) then wrote the book.
We could not be more on the same page here. (pun fully intended)