A terrible rendition of a good book

Rating: 5/10 (24 July 2015)

After reading the book, I am sorely disappointed with this movie. It left and changed so many events, which left a very poorly told story.
In the book, we start off with a good view of Nick, we follow him around, so of course know he didn't commit the crime. Later the book leaves the reader confused, thinking, 'maybe he did do it?' We aren't getting the full story here. Instead we are left short transitions, where the movie pretty much tells us we have to feel a certain way. Nick doesn't seem apologetic at all, he smiles weirdly, not because of a possible complex upbringing (maybe he didn't do it), but are we getting the full story (maybe he did do it). In the movie he just looks like a jerk. He obviously did it. This was a result of the many omissions left out for the movie.
Nick's relationship with his dad was an important aspect left completely out. Instead of learning Nick's backstory, his childhood, the way he was raised, the reason why he doesn't want to act a certain way, but where his upbringing still influenced him heavily. We only see in the movie that his dad once got out of the care facility randomly.
We also miss the many things explained in the book that make Amy tick. In the movie we are told she plans things perfectly, but we get an unrealistic situation; a partly burned, diary in the front of an easily opened heater, planted as evidence; this is opposite of the novel, where Amy hides it in the old complex furnace, something Nick would have never been able to do, because he's not very handy. Meanwhile she changed the passcode so that Nick would be recorded as getting into the house at some point. Nick instead starts playing games with Amy. He figures she is framing him eventually, and he starts playing mind games back. He does interviews where he plays to her heartstrings. Things that were well thought out in the book aren't in the movie.
In the novel we learn a lot about Amy at first, eventually to have our entire world shaken more. Amy isn't really Amy. Her diary was a flat out lie, but the Amy that we know really is just one of a series of characters played throughout her lifetime.
But the most disappointing thing left out, was the weird and awkward feeling left at the end of the novel.
The movie undermines the relation that the reader/viewer thought Nick and Amy had at first, how going through the anniversary search made Nick really, truly, fall back in love, and as the reader followed Nick around, we were certain he didn't do it. He fell in love like the old days written in Amy's diary. Meanwhile, despite Amy framing him, hating him for all he's worth, Amy starts to fall back in love again. She falls in love so much, and realizes that with Nick, even though she was playing a part, she was free to be whoever she wanted to be. This was opposite of her situation she found herself in. She finally decides to go back.
Most disappointingly though is the overall theme the reader can get from the book. At the end of the novel the reader felt weird-- Amy knew Nick so well, that she was able to frame him perfectly because he played into her hands. Meanwhile, Nick seems like the only one that was able to play Amy's game. He did it so well, that he actually brought her back. In the end it strangely feels like they are truly meant for each other; in the most crazy way possible. That feeling was majorly lacking at the end of the movie.