TheArgentWolf

I absolutely loved the book, and was thrilled to know that it was being released as a movie - until I watched it, and was heartbroken. The perspective is told entirely from Rihannon's point of view, whereas the book is completely from A's. An entire side-plot related to Nathan was completely dropped, barely mentioned as an aside, and pointless characters were given lots of screen time while hardly having a mention in the book. Mechanics of A's ability are completely changed just to suit the 'teen romance' of the movie, and what I felt were important body switches, showing real diversity, were either completely ignored, or underplayed. The movie could've done so much for representation, but it just didn't care to.

If you can watch this and separate from the book, or aren't reading the book at all, honestly it plays as an averagely low-budget, dull teen movie, with nothing special going for it.

I don't know if this movie was supposed to be funny, or interesting, or clever, but I was bored within the first few minutes of watching it. Ricky Gervais is the same arrogant, unfunny character that he plays in anything he's in. Jennifer Garner and Tina Fey, while usually brilliant at what they do, were dumbed down in an attempt to make Gervais seem funnier, and it just didn't work. The only scene I liked in the entire movie was the one taking place in the hospital, and even that was ruined by bad comedic timing, and the implausible plot line of the rest of the movie. None of the characters were likable, and were two dimensional, and the idea of people not lying often got mixed up with people just always saying what's on their mind (like really, would someone say they hated their job, when just serving food? That's not telling the truth, that's just a bad attempt at a joke). Bad script, bad plot, bad characters. Would not recommend in a million years.

When thinking about this film, the one thing that comes to mind is the scene talking about the short story - where nothing happened. I was looking forward to this movie, after all the rave reviews about it, and though it was not the worst film I've ever seen, it's definitely nowhere near the top. I spent the entire thing bored, waiting for something that wasn't monotonous to happen, and it never did. Although well acted, I had little interest in the characters or plot lines. Perhaps it's due to a lack of knowledge or understanding of Orson Welles' career, on my part, but I would not recommend this to other people.