Soooo. Love and Gelato. A movie. I was so excited.
HOWEVER.
Never expect the book and movie to be the same. I love both book and film, but oftentimes the book version of a story has more layers and nuances because we exist inside a character's head... whereas in film, we can only see things from one perspective: our own.
Anyway, first, here's a spoiler-free review of the movie adaptation.
Plot convenience. Many of the reasons our main character, Lina, meets other characters or goes to certain events are not how they were in the book. She meets people in the same style you would in pretty much any other rom-com.
Different characters. Although Lina is still our main character, she gets put into a love triangle with Ren and... let's just say someone else. He's not featured in the book, but I can guess he's loosely based off of one of the other characters in it. The other main characters don't even have the same professions they do in the book, or the same personalities.
Kind of funny, but ultimately cliche. Lina's best friend, Addie, is this fashion-loving Instagram-surfing quirky character, while Lina is an absolute nerd. In the books, Lina is a runner and Addie is also into sports... so is Ren, one of the story's main love interests. Ren's personality also gets sacrificed into being the quirky young Italian chef he is in this story. While some of it made me laugh, the humor in the book is much better, and the glossed-over mold-breaking the book version did makes me want to punch something.
All that being said, if you pretend the book doesn't exist, the movie isn't terrible. It tries to be quirkier than everything else, ultimately making the "I'm not like other girls" statement and being exactly like other girls.
Okay, now for my spoiler-filled rant. All that being said, if you pretend the book doesn't exist, the movie isn't terrible. It tries to be quirkier than everything else, ultimately making the "I'm not like other girls" statement and being exactly like other girls.
(If you haven't seen it yet--and honestly if you've read it, I'm not sure you want to--stop here. Everyone good? Okay, here goes.)
I have a lot of problems with Alessandro and Ren. I'll be honest, sitting through the first ten or so minutes, I was like, "Oh. That guy's cute. Is he supposed to be Ren?" NOPE. He also has WAY too much screen time in the first half of the movie to be as unimportant as he is. Alessandro is our stand-in for Thomas, Lina's other crush in the book. What I don't understand is he is MUCH more similar to having Book-Ren's personality than Movie-Ren's personality does. While in the beginning I liked Alessandro-Ren, they wrote him off to be a guy who tears through girls like a chihuahua chewing through toilet paper. I was kind of mad. He seemed like he would be closer to the book version than our version of Ren who was already introduced... and BOY, do I have a lot to say about that too. Don't get me wrong, Movie-Ren is sweet enough, but they made him the cliche chef in EVERY rom-com there is to exist. I loved him toward the end, but I miss his more assured personality. They made him quirky. Which they didn't really need to do? The whole love triangle seemed unnecessary--especially in the end, because Lina's ultimate decision is to choose herself. (Which I'm not knocking on, because considering this version of her character? She needed it.)
Addie. I ADORE Addie, but they wrote her off in this movie to be the quirky, one-dimensional best friend. And while the actress slays the role, it seems undermining to her and to her character to make that her whole personality--and the book version of Addie is absolutely NOTHING like this. Book-Addie also goes on to be the main character of our sequel, Love & Luck. And while I'm fine if they continue making these movies, it would be nowhere near the same for the sequel.
Lina. I don't know why I'm putting her here instead of at the top of the long list of characters I thought didn't measure up to the book, but she's... over-quirky. Over-nerdy... over-clumsy, over-everything. She's kind of funny, but not what I wanted or really expected at all. She's just... messy. And making bad decisions. I'm not sure she really shows her grief that well, and instead of coming off sad in the opera scene she just looks... scared? I was so confused. Her hair's also not curly. (I know, I know, that statement might be a little petty but that BOTHERED me.)
Francesca. Same thing as Addie--into fashion and not much else. She's funny though. Keeps Howard on his toes.
Howard. Not many complaints, except that he's barely in the movie at all. Part of the big story arc for both him and Lina is discussing her mother, and they don't have much chance to do it. He's also in a completely different profession. (Oh--and Irish. Seriously?)
The humor. Well, that and the language. Some of it was funny, but some sentences made me want to vomit. (I'm not going to put an example on here, because then that would just make YOU vomit, and we don't really want that, do we?)
The end. It was just... weird to me. Like why. Why did you do that. I don't mind seeing them older, and honestly, watching Lina call a scooter and "Italian death bike" and then buying one of her own was pretty funny to me. But the haircuts and everything just made me feel weird. She's supposed to stay in Italy because she found love and something to look forward to in her life since her mom's passing... not because she needed to find herself, as the movie explains.
The music choices were also... weird. I don't know how else to describe it. They didn't fit. I didn't like them. Moving on.
The key events. I lot of the key events in the book are skipped over or traded for other things. The club Lina and Ren go into doesn't exist; the party Ren invites Lina to is actually for Alessandro's family... it's a whole mess.
Anyway. If you're a fan of the book... expect to be a bit disappointed. Or conversely, just try to put the book out of your mind completely before you watch.
Ciao,
~TheBookGobbler
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