a coming of age story which takes you on a journey following a young boy, Charlie, through his first year of high school

Rating: 2/10 (26 July 2013)

i am an avid reader and i read this book a few years ago. i automatically fell in love with it.i soon found out they were making it into a film and i have always been sceptical of films which are based on books and i am quite often disappointed with the outcome. this film was no exception.
I had heard and read countless reviews about this film saying how amazing it was and i felt obliged to watch it. i tried my very best to put the book out of my head and just go with it and i shall give credit where credit is due... I think overall they did an excellent job of the film. The cast was excellent, especially Emma Watson who plays Sam. Not once throughout the film did i think of the harry potter films, which is what i have done throughout other features i have seen her, and other members of the harry potter cast, in.
Throughout the film I constantly felt like each scene ended so quickly! I would just start to enjoy it and then it would move on so suddenly and i would be left bewildered trying to soak up the last scene as well as the scene which was playing in front of me. I have constantly found this with films which have been based on books. With a book you can take your time, soak up all the details, use your imagination whereas with a film, everything is just put in front of you and all you do is just stare at a screen for a few hours. This isn't how i feel about all films, only films based on books.
*spoiler alert* whilst reading the book I found the scene which struck me the most and i found the most emotional was the scene with the poem. I found not only the poem emotional but the entire atmosphere which the author had created so moving. It was the one scene i pictured so vividly in my head being part of the film and when it didn't come around, i cant even begin to express my disappointment.
I also feel the books which were given to Charlie by his English teacher were a huge part of the story and also Charlie as a character and a person. I feel like there wasn't nearly enough attention on the books and how they uncovered Charlie as a person.
Overall I would definitely not recommend this film if you have read the book however if you dislike reading and are looking for a funny, meaningful, heart wrenching coming of age story then this is definitely the film for you.