Movie Review: The Spectacular Now

So I finally watched The Spectacular Now last night and I just want to quickly share my thoughts. I haven't read the book yet, and I know I should've probably done that first, but I just really felt like watching the movie. I didn't really know what it was about and I expected some cute teenage romance. It surprised me, though, because it was quite different from what I had imagined.

It follows Sutter Keely who is this upbeat, popular guy who doesn't really care about anything other than enjoying what he has right now. But we soon find out that his carefree attitude towards everything just helps him to avoid all the things he doesn't want to have to cope with, like not knowing his dad. After his girlfriend breaks up with him, he meets Aimee who is completely different from him. At first, he wants to 'help' her out by being her friend or something like that (I didn't really get that part) but of course things get a little more complicated.

Even from how I just described the movie, I would still expect a cutesy romantic story, but it's really not. I don't really know how to describe it, it just runs a lot deeper than what I expected. Since I really  don't want to spoil anything for you if you, like me, don't really know what the story is about, I'm just going to say that it left me rather sad than happy.

The acting was phenomenal in my opinion. It felt very real and honest and I loved how there was lots of awkward laughter. The conversations didn't feel superficial or simply well-rehearsed, they rather seemed like they could be happening in everyday-life, and isn't that what acting should be like? Also, there wasn't a lot of background music, which really matched the setting and story of the movie and I loved that. Sometimes it gets a little too much when there's always music that's trying to tell you what to feel. The Spectacular Now made me cry a little without a sad song playing at the right moment. It's not that hard for a movie to make me cry, though, but still.

Overall I really liked this movie and it was surprisingly different from what I had been expecting. One problem I had with it was that I didn't always feel like I quite understood what was happening. That made it a little harder to connect with the story. Also, not much actually happens throughout the story and I can imagine that that bothers some people; for me it was okay, though. I might still pick up the book sometime and hopefully that would help me understand the whole story a little better, but I wasn't that blown away by the movie that I feel the need to start the book right now.

Have you watched The Spectacular Now? 

If so, what are your thoughts?

Thank you for reading!

Love, Rosie | Movie Review

Hello there. I went to see Love, Rosie today with my sister and I thought I would do a short review of the movie. As you may know, it is based on the book Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern (aka one of my alltime favorites), so I was super excited when I first found out they were turning it into a movie. The movie's been out for a while now but I only got around to actually going to see it today, but better late than never right?

If you're not familiar with the story of the book or the movie, it basically follows a guy and a girl (obviously) who have been best friends all their lives but there was always that MAYBE it could be more but then fate (or just a lot of unfortunate events) always keep that from happening. In the book, the story is actually told only through letters/emails/instant messages or the like. It made it so much more fun to read for me and if you're interested in a very short review that I wrote months back when I first started doing this book blog thing, you can go have a look at that here.

So obviously I was really curious about how they would incorporate those fun written exchanges in the movie and I also expected that the movie would be quite different from the book because the story in the book takes place over almost 50 years. That would obviously be difficult for a movie adaptation with all the actors staying the same age and so on. But while there were a lot of differences to the book, I still really loved the movie. It was just as cute and funny as the book and that's the most important part after all.

I don't want to give away too much here because I feel like anything I say will be a spoiler. So I can only very highly recommend both the book and the movie because the story of Rosie and Alex is one of the cutest, most heartwarming stories of friendship, family and love there is. Even though it wasn't the most perfect movie adaptation of a book I've ever seen, it gave me (almost) the same feeling I got when reading the book (all warm and fluffy). Plus, it doesn't hurt to get to look at Sam Claflin for two hours and both he and Lily Collins really did a great job in this movie. I really liked to see them together and they fit perfectly into their roles. I don't really picture characters in books as people when I read it but if I had to pick someone for Alex's part, Sam Claflin certainly is a wonderful choice.

Let me know if you've read the book or seen the movie and what you thought of it. If you haven't, go pick up the book now, I'm serious. Thank you for reading!

How I Met Your Mother

Okay, so I'm an emotional wreck over here. I just watched the very last episode of How I Met Your Mother. My favourite tv show ever. I can't even tell you how much I love it. And now that I actually just watched the last episode, I don't know what to say or think. I can't believe how it ended. I can't believe it!

If you haven't seen it and do not want to be spoiled, don't read this. Because I can't possibly talk about it without spoiling it. I loved the episode and at the same time I didn't like it too much. I've been so prepared for all happily ever afters but of course they weren't going to do that. Of course! I mean, it's HIMYM we're talking about. HIMYM is a brilliant show that a lot of people enjoy, not just women. It's brilliant because it's not all love and happiness but also somewhat realistic. And of course this brilliant show wasn't going to end in "yes, you were right all along, it turned out just as you expected." This is How I Met Your Mother. Not a cheesy romantic tv show. Not How We Were All Happily Ever After And Our Love and Friendship Never Faded And Nothing Bad Ever Happened.

So here are some things I wanted to talk about:

Barney and Robin get a divorce

To understand how I feel about this, you have to know that Barney and Robin were my favourite couple of HIMYM. I've always wanted them to be together and yes, I did like Barney with Nora and I liked Barney with Quinn even more. And yes, I did like Robin with Ted (more on that later). But Barney and Robin were just the best. I was so incredibly happy for them to get married. And I don't think I will get over the fact that that marriage didn't last.

I mean thinking about it now, it does kind of make sense. Theoretically speaking. Not considering the fact that IT JUST CAN'T HAPPEN! Okay okay. Yes, it makes sense. Barney never wanted to get married. Robin never wanted to get married. How are the two of them supposed to live happily ever after as a married couple? But still, they both changed so much and them being together started to make more and more sense. Yes, I'm still not happy about this. But moving on.

The mother dies

This was the most unexpected thing ever! How could they do that?! I had to watch the scene where Ted says "And I carried it with me when she got sick." about a thousand times to actually understand what he's saying. I still can't believe it. I loved Tracy! She was absolutely brilliant and I loved every little thing we got to know about her. She was the perfect woman for Ted. And then they kill her off so he could be with Robin? I get it, the whole story was mostly about Robin. Yes, it makes sense. Again, it really does. It's just not what I expected at all.

Ted and Robin do actually end up together

Don't get me wrong. I love Ted and Robin. I've rooted for them at the beginning. But at some point I gave up on the idea of them actually being together. There were just so many signs that they wouldn't be. And of course that's because when Ted's telling the story, they weren't actually together yet. And of course the whole story is more about Robin and how Ted has always loved her than about anything else. So, again, it all made a whole lot of sense. But I started to actually like the thought of Ted finally getting over Robin. Like completely 100% get over her. And meeting someone else. I know, he did meet someone else, he had a very very very happy marriage. I'm sure he was head over heels in love with Tracy McConnell.

And no, I don't think that Ted had been in love with Robin when he was with Tracy. But I can imagine that, with Tracy gone for 6 years, Ted would finally move on and find his way back to Robin. I mean, 6 years is a long time and I think that just shows how much he loved Tracy and how much he must have been devastated after her death. So I guess I can live with Robin and Ted being together. I had just always assumed that the mother and Ted would be together for ever. I mean, that was the whole point of the show, wasn't it? No, it wasn't. It was about Ted telling his kids how he met their mom. Never about what happened after that. But still.

Marshall and Lily

I love Marshall and Lily and I'm so glad that they're happy and that they're having another child and that everything seems to have turned out perfectly for them in the end. I'm glad to hear that Marshall still got to be a judge and, yes, I really enjoyed all the judge-jokes. I'm glad that there wasn't any major surprising moment here because I think that would've been too much. Lily and Marshall have just always been the one constant thing during all that's happened. I love that that didn't change.

So I guess, as I've said a thousand times, it all made a lot of sense. And that goes to show how awesome HIMYM is. No, it didn't end like I expected it. But it also didn't end in a way that I can't accept. It all just came together somehow. Everything fell into place and everything (yes, I'm going to say it again) made perfect sense. Of course Robin and Ted were going to end up together and of course he would steal the blue French horn for her and of course she had all her dogs back and it was all just like the very beginning of the show. That's just wonderful to see. And even more wonderful to see was Barney having a daughter and her being his one true love. Back when I still thought Barney and Robin would be together for ever, I was actually kind of sad about the fact that they could never have children. Seeing Barney with James' children gave me the feeling that he should have kids. No, not to give them gigantic pet snakes but because you could tell he absolutely loves children. And I'm glad things kind of turned out alright for him.

And I loved that there was actually a point why Ted was telling his kids the whole story. Because he was asking for permission to ask Robin out. What kind of a great dad is he?

I don't know what I'm going to do now with no new HIMYM episodes to look forward to. I can't believe the show's ended. For real. Please send some help!