Boovies book and movie club’s Review for February 2017: Before I go to Sleep

Dorlana Vann ♦ March 10, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

February’s Book and Movie Review Theme:

Looking Back

Book/Movie Club Set Up:

Each member of our group (women ages 24-48) draws a month and a genre/theme. Whosever month it is, gets to choose a book and movie in their category. (They do not have to be one in the same.)

The group has approximately 3 weeks to read the book and then we get together to eat, discuss the book, and then watch the movie.

Quick Book Summary (from Amazon):

2012 Author: S. J. Watson – Compelling, fast-paced psychological thriller in which an amnesiac who, following a mysterious accident, cannot remember her past or form new memories, desperately tries to uncover the truth about who she is—and who she can trust.

Quick Movie Summary (from IMDB):

2014 Director: Rowan Joffe Writers: Rown Joffe & S.J. Watson Stars: Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong – A woman wakes up every day, remembering nothing as a result of a traumatic accident in her past. One day, new terrifying truths emerge that force her to question everyone around her.

The Itinerary:

This month we met at Darah’s apartment. We quickly agreed on our new name: Boovies book and movie club (Get it?).

Our host asked that we all bring a salty snack and a sweet snack. We ended up with quite a spread: ham and cream cheese wrapped green onions, beer dip with pretzels, bruschetta with balsamic glaze and garlic toast, Ritz bits w/ cheese and peanut butter, chips and salsa, saltwater taffy, ice cream sandwiches, salted caramel brownies, brownie bites, lemon pound cake, soda, wine, beer, and mimosas. Whew …

Thoughts about the Book:

Everyone seemed to enjoy the book even though the discussions were mostly aimed a the misses: red herrings, the slow middle, the drawn-out sappy wrap-up, character motivation, and the overall repetition—however, that was due to the nature of the plot and really couldn’t be helped. Most of us thought it was well-written, which also caused pause because the novel was mostly a rushed diary. Even after all of the criticisms, this book received one of the highest ratings from our group – so here are some of the reasons why we thought the book was well worth the read:

“I couldn’t put it down because I had to know the ending.”

“I liked the plot twist. It wasn’t what I had expected.”

“Easy and interesting read. It had a lot of build-up that made me not want to stop reading because I knew something bad was going to happen.”

“I just kept reading and reading because I loved how they uncovered the truth little by little.”

Thoughts about the Movie:

We pretty much all thought the movie was painfully slow. The story-line stayed close to the book but did have a few changes that were necessary for a movie (a video recording instead of a journal). But there were also changes that didn’t seem to have reason.

Finally, near the end, there was some suspense in this “thriller” and we liked the movie’s wrap-up better than the book’s. I thought Nicole Kidman did a good job despite the general lackluster mood of the movie. There was some talk of if we hadn’t have already known the ending, hadn’t read the book, would our interest in the movie been different? (I don’t think so.)

Girly Discussion:

Some thought the doctor in the movie was too old – someone (not this one) thought he was hot. We thought the best friend looked older in the flashback scenes – maybe her hair should have been switched (longer when she younger, shorter when older).

Interesting Discoveries:

Christine, the main character in book, was 47. In the movie, Christine was 40-years-old. Nicole Kidman, who played Christine was 46 at the time of the movie. (The reason for this didn’t occur to me until now, but I can’t say because it’s a spoiler.)

The Group’s Average ratings (out of 5):

Book: 4 glasses of wine

Movie: 2.5 glasses of wine

The bottom line:

This was a classic case of the book being better than the movie – but the movie’s ending was better (Still not worth the journey of watching the movie though.) Stick to the book this time, which is well-written and suspenseful.

Read With Us:

March’s book is The Restaurant Critic’s Wife by Elizabeth LaBan.

Love and Laughter,

The Day

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