Book vs. Movie: All The Bright Places

**TW: minor mentions of suicide**

A sort of literature and film analysis/opinion on Jennifer Niven's masterpiece, All The Bright Places.

Finch and Violet at Hoosier Hill in the 2020 film

When I first discovered the novel in 2015, I immediately knew that this was a story that would stick with me for the rest of my life. All The Bright Places is a coming of age story by American author, Jennifer Niven that follows the journey (or rather wanders) of high school students Theodore Finch and Violet Markey. This tear-jerking story has stolen the hearts of many of its young adult readers, making it obvious that the excitement for the release of the previously upcoming film was extensively high.

While many readers thoroughly enjoyed the 2020 film, I personally had mixed emotions towards it. In my opinion, the idea of turning such a life-defining novel into a movie is just a recipe for disappointment. As I watched the Netflix Original film in the comfort of my bedroom, I began to grow disappointed at the decisions and cuts that were made to it. Something about taking away majorly influential characters like Decca really made me upset. This, in turn, eliminated scenes that may have influenced Finch in positive and negative ways. I particularly missed the scene with Finch and Decca, where they were taking the bad parts out of their mother’s romance novel. This, to me, represented the innate innocence that Finch no longer held as he begins to grow up and his head began to fill with the Dark Moods. Similarly, the absence of his father and his other family took away from the things that impacted Finch to do what he did at the end of the film. That being said, the lack of negative influences leading to suicide does by no means justify the act itself.

The fact that Finch wasn’t portrayed as the many versions of himself as he was in the novel was slightly disappointing. This aspect of Finch was interesting and almost unheard of in other books that I have read. This is also apparent in the lack of screen time that he had with his friends, even if they didn’t influence him much in the novel as well.

In spite of my opinion, I still ultimately respect Jennifer Niven’s choices regarding this film and I understand that films can be restricted due to time and costs. She still wrote an exceptional novel and turned it into a film and I believe that is a huge accomplishment. I’d like to highly recommend reading the novel as well as streaming the film on Netflix and let me know your opinion!