All The Bright Places Review: A Tale of the Healing Power of Love Amid Trauma
There’s beauty in the most unexpected of places, and that there are bright places even in dark times. And that, if there isn’t, you can be that bright place… with infinite capacities — Theodore Finch
Now now, before I start discussing, let me say one thing about this narrative: Please don’t make such a heartwrenching narrative like this again! Oh, my poor heart! Look, I am a big fan of sad stuff; I’ll devour anything that involves angst or tragedy on sight, but this? Too much, pal, too much!
Okay, now let’s get to it!
So, what is All the Bright Places? What is it about?
All the Bright Places is a young adult fiction novel written by Jennifer Niven and published on January 6, 2015. According to The Hollywood Recorder, All The Bright Places was based on Jennifer’s actual personal experience with a boy she once loved. It tells the tale of Violet Markey and Theodore Finch, two teenagers who happen to cross paths on the water tower at their school. After her sister dies in a car accident, Violet battles to move past the grief as she also suffers from the guilt and trauma for it.
At the same time, Finch suffers from untreated mental health issues and frequently feels alone. As they work on a school project, the two start forming a close bond. Violet gives Theodore greater acceptance as he helps her recover her happiness; she trusts Theodore fully. But as their bond grows more intense, Violet tries to move on from her past as Finch battles more and more with his fragile mental state.
After its publication, the novel gained much attention, received a good response from the audience for the from readers and made it onto the New York Times bestseller list. Not only that, this book has also received a lot of praise from literary critics because the book is packaged and its clever way to convey such sensitive yet controversial making it nominated for many prestigious awards, such as the Goodreads Choice Award, Gateway Readers, Lincoln Award, and many others.
The success of this novel ultimately prompted the production of a film adaptation released by Netflix in 2020, starring Justice Smith as Theodore Finch and Elle Fanning as Violet Markey, which created a great combination of chemistry and well-portrayed emotions.
What’s different between the novel version and the screen adaptation?
Many often say you shouldn’t read a book first if you want to enjoy the movie at all. So I watched it first and read it later, and now I understand why. After reading the novel and watching the Netflix adaptation, I noticed a significant difference in plot structure between the book version and the Netflix adaptation, which may not seem like a significant change, but it feels like it did. However, according to several sources, some of the changes were made for the sake of the plot and visual narrative to allow the audience to comprehend better the emotional depth and intimacy of the two major characters, Violet Markey and Theodore Finch.
The beginning of the movie shows Theodore Finch going on his usual morning run, and he sees a girl, who is then revealed to be Violet Markey, standing on the ledge of the bridge, wanting to jump onto the same bridge where her sister died. In the novel, they are both seen on the ledge by numerous other students in the high school’s bell tower. Many students at the school believe Violet is a hero since she talked Finch down, and they know Finch as ‘The freak.’ This difference doesn’t bother me much, as the idea that they met at the ledge makes it much better in many ways.
Also, when Violet gets into a brief conversation with a male at the party, she briefly attends at the start of the Netflix adaptation. She walks off after a guy, revealed to be Roamer, pushes her to get over her sister’s death. But it was supposed to be Ryan in the book, and I just realized that Ryan isn’t even in this movie adaptation, which, of course, may confuse the book readers who watched the movie adaptation. It is also mentioned in Niven’s book that she and Ryan used to date but stopped after her sister passed away, which is not explained in the movie.
While there are other bit details that the Netflix adaptation didn’t use that itch me, it still feels manageable because the Netflix adaptation still manages to pull the feels off. I liked how the audience could feel the bond and chemistry between Violet Markey and Theodore Finch through their actions in the movie, and it was portrayed so well. But in the film, when Finch dies, Violet Markey knows and accepts that he dies. She felt it and broke down as she discovered his clothes and the rock.
While in the book, Violet doesn’t immediately accept it, though, when she discovers his clothes and car by the lake. She believes that people such as Theodore Finch are not the ones who die; she tells herself that maybe he was wandering around the lake. She dives in to search for him, saying, “He’s just wandering.” When the police arrive later and discover him dead, they ask her to identify him, but she refuses to say anything as she still can’t accept that Finch died. Oh my, something about the book makes me feel things! It gives more accurate details about the character and their relationship, offering more emotional depth to the narrative and moving the audience’s heart.
As Mashable stated in their article, An orchestral score and montages of sun-soaked imagery fill the spaces where character development should be. As a result, Violet and Finch come out under-baked. Be that as it may, there’s a part where the Netflix adaptation adds several scenes and dialogue to deepen the characters’ backstories and motivations, which allows the audience to understand better the complexity of the emotions and journey experienced by Finch and Violet throughout the movie.
The Angst? Purr!
Having emotional themes with heart-stirring depth as one of the strengths that stands out in the narrative, This novel successfully creates an emotionally arousing experience, immersing readers in a moving and touching narrative.
Jennifer Niven cleverly and carefully emphasizes the value of mental health and the presence of supportive relationships in navigating life’s challenges. Her realistic and captivating portrayals of her characters’ emotional and mental health captivate readers and dive more into their lives. Audiences identify strongly with Violet and Finch because of the author’s skill in evoking emotional struggle and depth in the characters, making the reader feel the same emotions as Violet and Finch.
The actors also contributed to the success of capturing the emotional essence of the Netflix adaptation. Carrying out his role as Theodore Finch, Justice Smith was able to very powerfully portray the sense of despair and confusion felt by Theodore Finch in his struggle with depression and other mental disorders. Not only that, but at the end of the film, Justice Smith extraordinaryly describes Theodore Finch’s characteristics. He did an exceptional performance as the character who suffers from untreated mental health issues and a tendency to act impulsively, which leads to destructive consequences for his loved ones.
Elle Fanning also succeeded in presenting the internal conflict experienced by Violet well between the desire to forget the past and the fear of letting go of painful memories as she suffers great depression due to her sister’s death in a car accident. Elle Fanning skillfully portrays Violet’s journey towards self-rediscovery through all of the challenging roads she travels, with the support of Theodore, as well as her desire to have a meaningful life while attempting to let go of the past.
Seeing actual proof of what happened to Theodore made me realize how necessary it is to be aware of the situations of the people around us. I agree with what has been stated in Roger Ebert’s review of “All the Bright Places” that the narrative rests on the notion that you never really know what others are going through, that people who seem to have it all together on the outside might have a lot more going on underneath. In the narratives, Theodore seems like a ray-of-sunshine guy who always tries to help others. He helped others like he didn’t need one for himself; that’s the main problem in the narrative.
Even when he’s in a dark mood, and Violet confronts him to at least tell her what’s going on, he refuses to tell her. There are a lot of people like Theodore Finch out there. Therefore, this film exists to present the message of the importance of awareness about mental health problems and the need for empathy towards individuals who experience them, especially for people around you who have the possibility of experiencing the same thing as Niven is also hopeful that her story can help anyone struggling.
We can conclude that All the Bright Place is a really emotional yet moving story, with a captivating plot and a strong message about mental health that Niven intended to spread over the world, encouraging us to be aware of our surroundings and loved ones. Even though there are differences between the book version and the Netflix adaptation, the narrative still serves its function as a strong message for people out there who may be experiencing the same thing as Theodore Finch or Violet Markey. That’s all from me, Happy watching!
