Great movie, but only if you want to be sad...

Rating: 5/10 (6 June 2014)

Let me start out by clarifying something: this was a great movie! It was excellently directed, the plot elements were not predictable (unless you read the book), the cast was perfectly picked, and is everything one would expect from this movie, though I hear (spoiler) that one character was omitted (I wouldn't have known, as I never read the book). Now, that being said, it was also exactly as I expected it to be, and not in a good way. Thus, this movie really deserves two reviews- one for people who enjoy sad movies, and one for those who do not. If you like movies that make you cry and/or feel particularly distraught and almost depressed, then you'll love this movie. My girlfriend is one of those people, and despite being in tears for ~2/3 of the movie, she loved the movie. If you're like me and strongly dislike tear-jerker style movies, you will not find this movie enjoyable. It is that simple. I went into this movie expecting it to put me in a bad mood for days, and the movie lived up to those expectations perfectly. It has perfectly-timed emotional attacks, with the dry humor failing to lighten the tone to more than an infinitesimal degree. I was actually relieved when it ended, not because of the quality of the movie, but because I really could not bear to watch something so sad. I have no plans of watching this movie again. So, you can see that the sentiments about this movie are somewhat polarized. Therefore, I divide up the rating into two, five-star categories: 5/5 for those who like sad stories, and 0/5 for those who do not, because sadness is really the primary element of this movie.