You’re Not You: Film & Novel Review

You're Not YouHey everyone!

Hope you survived your Thanksgiving and didn’t get trampled on while doing some Black Friday shopping…and enjoyed the Seahawks vs 49ers if you’re into that (I was reading…more on that). I just got back not too long ago doing some shopping with my sister and mom. I didn’t get to run yesterday as planned, but as I’ve discovered over the years of being with my boyfriend, family plans change…usually last minute and last minute was 10:30pm the night before. Oh well. I’m really really glad we got to be with his family the morning of because boyfriend worked that night (along with my papa). I spent the night with my mom and papa (who had to sprint off to work). Day well spent. Even the warmest Turkey day in 130 years. Crraazzzy! I’m just glad we didn’t get 6 ft of snow like Buffalo, NY did!

So anywho, as I mentioned, I was reading during the big game. I only had 10% of my book left and I wanted to finish it darn it! The book was called “You’re Not You” and is by Michelle Wildgen. I started reading the book after I saw the trailer that featured Hilary Swank and thought I’d give the book a shot and then watch the movie online. For those who aren’t up to date with your movie trailers or haven’t heard of the book, you can find it easily on wiki or youTube. To give a general plot, the story follows Bec (played by Emmy Rossum) who because a caregiver for Kate (Hilary Swank) who has Lou Gehrig (ALS) disease. Josh Duhamel plays Evan, Kate’s husband. The story follows how the two gals get along and, as wiki puts it, brings out the best in each other.

Overall (and no spoilers right now), I loved book and movie for different reasons. While the book had a ton more in it, it was never action packed and took its time while the movie had extras in it and kept some of the good parts from the book in it.

Alright. Now for the SPOILERS!!

First off the book. I will admit that it took me 2 or 3 chapters before I started to get into the book more. It didn’t help that I read it randomly as well. The book started off slow and introduced Bec and got to Kate and Evan pretty quickly. You spend a good portion of the first 2-4 chapters trying to figure out who Liam. Once you find out that he’s a married professor who she is sleeping with, it made me want to slap her for the many times Bec slept with him for being such an idiot.

I have to admit that I really disliked Bec’s mother. Ugh! I hated her even more in the movie. I wanted to smack Evan really hard in the book and a little less in the movie.

Enough ranting. I will admit one thing: when Kate’s time finally came, I didn’t fully know it. That might have been me, but I didn’t know it until the start of the next chapter (which her passing was right at the end of the chapter).

Right after I finished the book, I started watching the movie. It’s a short movie. Only about 1:45 long. It felt fine though. Didn’t feel rush and didn’t feel slow. Hilary Swank played a great Kate. She felt a little bit different to me than that Kate I was picturing in the book, but overall, she played her well. Even with her voice degrading, it was just….great. Emmy Rossum played a great Bec as well. Still, she felt a little different as well. Bec in the book was kind of a chaotic character who had trouble with her mom and guys (note Liam). Rossum brought out that part.

Some of the big changes is that they had less of Kate’s rich friends involved and introduced another ALS patient who died during the later part of the movie. Personally, I think the new character was well needed. She brought humor to the book. Another biggie was Bec’s suitor, Will. They introduced him right from the start where in the book, Bec had a crap ton of trouble getting over her Liam obsession. Two more big changes: Kate stayed in the house and never moved out and Bec turns out to be more of a musician than a chef. The later was a little disappointing to me. Granted, Kate did teach Bec how to cook, but it didn’t seem to have as big of an affect on Bec like it did in the book. Oh and no other caregivers. Bec’s the only one. And Jill, Bec’s former roommate and best friend is gay instead of straight. I don’t know why they did the last one. It did make it funny at times though. In the movie, they did bring Evan back some. Though in the end, he couldn’t watch Kate die so he left. That made me sad but at least he seemed to still love her while in the book, it felt like he just shrugged it off. That could just be me.

One gripe I have that was in both book and movie is that the ending just seemed cut off. When I got to the last page on my Kindle of the book and swiped for the next page, I was startled to find that it was the end. I was like “WTF!?” Same thing happened to the movie. The book did, however, have it where you got to find out how Bec coupes with Kate’s death and how she moves on. I’m very happy they did that. The movie did not do that.

Ummm. I think that’s all I’ve got. I just finished the movie so I wanted to talk about it while it’s still fresh.

Oh and yes. I cried during the end of the movie. I didn’t cry in the book because, as I said before, I didn’t know she died!! O.O

That’s all I got. Later gators!