Drawn by a movie preview in my Facebook feed, I checked out Jennifer E. Smith's book, The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight. The lead character looked familiar. It turns out she played the lead in the movie version of Five Feet Apart. She's an attractive, spunky gal, and quite charming. The Love at First Sight movie sounded appealing, but I always prefer to read the book first. The book was delightful. Yet, I was skeptical the movie version would be as wholesome as the book.
Hadley Sullivan knows it will be a terrible day. After all, she's traveling to London to attend her father's wedding. He couldn't settle for abandoning his family. He had to seal the deal by marrying someone else, someone Hadley has never even met. When she misses her flight, she must wait for the next available one. But a British boy named Oliver ends up sitting next to her. Those four lousy minutes that made her late may just change her life...
As the inside cover tease reads: "Quirks of timing play out in this romantic and cinematic novel about family connections, second chances, and first loves. Set over a twenty-four-hour period, Hadley and Oliver's story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least expecting it."
The dialogue is fun. The characters are endearing. I'm so grateful the author didn't follow the way of modern YA by muddying the waters with a tryst in the airplane lavatory. No, this is a clean and enjoyable romance I would feel safe handing to any teen reader. I'm thrilled I encountered that advertisement.
Here's the movie trailer that lured me in:
As for the movie, I am impressed! No, more than that, blown away. Not only is it clean (momentary exception*), but it enhances Oliver's storyline in such a way that I think it outpaces the actual book. In fact, I far prefer the way Oliver's story plays out in the movie. It holds more substance and feeling.
I rarely laud a movie over the book. This movie gutted me. I sat sobbing on my couch (and this, moments after my husband heard me cracking up from a clever line). The movie was magical and moving (so much so, I watched it a second time). It nailed the essence of Smith's novel.
Exception*: In the movie, when Hadley phones her father in the middle of the night to say she missed her flight, he is lying in bed next to his pending bride. Is it any wonder our young people see no hesitation for sex preempting, or outside of, the holy commitment of matrimony?
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