It's called murder

Rating: Null/10 (12 June 2009)

Now I understand very well that when a book is turned into a film, changes are going to be made. A little bit of artistic license is going to be used. However, this is not what happened in this case. Apart from the characters names and the very bare bones of the story line, this is a completely different story.
Okay, so Gerry still dies. He still leaves Holly letters (although they're delivered in horribly cheesy ways). She still goes on holiday (although she goes to Ireland - where the book is set!). I didn't get why Holly's family was changed? Richard (Holly's brother) was a lovely character and the story of how he and Holly became close was touching. I also don't understand why the book was moved to America. As we see from the scenes on holiday in Ireland, the place has a lovely landscape compared to the streets of New York. William was not present at all in the book and I thought it was crass of her to fall into bed with him (especially as he was basically Gerry reincarnated). The plot lines with Declan (and the documentary) and Jack (helping Holly clear away Gerry's stuff) was both great, although I could almost understand if they were missed out due to timing.
Even the things that was the same were awkward. The friendship between Holly, Sharon and Denise felt forced and badly acted (The scene in the boat was just painful). In the book you could understand Holly's feelings about Sharon's baby and Denise's wedding, and you could understand Sharon and Denise's reaction, but in the film this was glossed over.
The relationship between Gerry and Holly is stiff. Gerard Butler plays Gerry wonderfully and you cannot understand why he would be with Holly in the movie.
Overall, I was disappointed with the movie. Like I said, I could understand why things have to be changed when a book is changed into a film, but in some cases they can still be well done (the Harry Potter movies for example). This film was just plain bad. If you watched the film and thought it was good, either grow a brain or read the book and see how wrong you are.
I'm not going to give it a rating as it's not possible to give a 0.