The Dive from Clausen's Pier

I haven't read the book, but even so, I thought the movie was far from good. It's supposed to be... well, the movie doesn't make that all too clear. We learn that main character Carrie wants to become something else, and that's about it. From reading other comments, though, I've learned that it is supposed to be about a young woman's journey to find herself and face her demons. I'm not sure about WHAT demons...

The movie, in short, is about Carrie's boyfriend Mike breaking his back diving, and Carrie breaking up with him (not because of the injury) and going off to New York to get a life, so to speak. She meets supposedly mysterious 35-year-old Kilroy and they become a couple. Then everybody leads complicated lives for a while, and she finally goes home - although the movie does not reveal for what reasons.

This movie confused me a bit right from the start, mostly because of the very young appearances of the characters; in the opening scenes we see Carrie (Michelle Trachtenberg) and her boyfriend, and him giving her a ring, at the same time as her voice tells the story of their several years long relationship - and the first thought that popped into my head was: "So, you met when you were like 9?" Sadly, in my opinion, she never rises to the challenge of portraying a young woman in this movie, but stays on a teenager-trying-to-act-adult level (it doesn't help that she looks and sounds like 15-16), which makes a lot of her lines and her relationship with Kilroy literally unbelievable. She's too young to play the part.

Meanwhile, Kilroy (Sean Maher) is, I guess, supposed to be this mysterious, secretive handsome stranger, but to me he seems exaggerated and a bit over-acted. Also, there doesn't seem to be the least bit of chemistry between him and Michelle Trachtenberg. I'd guess they were brother and kid sister sooner than lovers.

All in all, the movie felt unnecessary. Nothing that pulled me in and kept me concentrated, but rather something to mindlessly doze to. We never get to see past the surface of any character, and the story is high-paced in a bad way.

Yet another sad attempt at turning a book into a film. I discovered the book by accident and went about encouraging my friends to read it because the characters, story, and compelling ending needed to be discussed. This film lends itself to no discussion beyond asking for what purpose the things that were changed, especially in character, were changed. By significantly changing the characters, especially Kiroy (the character in the book would NEVER have gone chasing after Carrie), the film lost all of the soul of the book. The greatest moment in the book, when Carrie gets the sewing machine in the mail, wasn't even in the film. Further, the film became less about one woman's journey to discover who she is and more about her dealing with her fiancé's accident. Definitely not recommended. Read the book.

This is the first time I have seen Michelle Trachtenberg in an adult role. She still looks like a cute kid but her acting talent puts her into the character as a twenty-something. Probably not an Emmy role but notable just the same. The gal is good!

The DP got the angles and lighting right, but a note to the costume designer and/or director: She looks good in colors other than black.

The story did have a few interesting turns. I can see why it was a best selling book...and why it was made into to a Lifetime movie. If you like them (I do), you will like this one, too. The ending (and Michelle) left me begging for a sequel or maybe a short series.

I expected the Dive from Claussens pier to be at least 3 stars since the book was completely amazing, but i was quite disappointed..This movie just didn't excite me, and i don't think Michelle whatever her last name is should of been the lead..she seemed far to young, and bored me to death..The rest of the cast seemed to be OK..you most likely would not know any of there names, because they've only been in a few movies..So i guess this move was OK, but i really don't recommend watching it..but i do recommend reading the book!! It was interesting, had an excellent plot, and was not at all boring

Megan

I didn't read the book, didn't even know there was 1 till I got on here, sorry. Just got the movie for Will, he did a good job in fact I just fast forward through the whole movie just to see his scenes. Other than that the film isn't worth it. Michelle is just to fake and she kisses weird in this movie. They said that Will actually tried to study how to be paralyzed for the movie. Thanks to the other views I actually found out if they get back together or not cause the movie ends terribly, and you don't know for sure if they do or not just watching the movie. I didn't even realize it was a Lifetime movie, I don't care for Lifetime or Hallmark, they're all basically the same movie different characters/settings.