Just finished the book...


... and have to say I’ve never seen a film more perfectly realized than this one. I can only imagine how fulfilling it must’ve been for Stephen Chbosky to turn his own novel into a feature film.

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I agree! The ONLY thing I would say that was different was that some of the stuff was toned down. Charlie goes into full detail about some of the sex scenes he's witnessed which really isn't in the movie, but other than that it's spot on. I was a little disappointed that there was no "mall scene", though, if you can remember when Charlie is being shunned from his friends, he goes to the mall by himself and sees a teenager help a lost kid find his mother.

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Just curious about the blacked out fight scene: Did the book mention anything about him being taught to fight? I mean he must have known how to fight because just blind anger generally couldn't do what he did to three big football players.

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Yes in the book it mentions that his brother taught him to fight

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Totally agree! I just wished he had kept the part where Charlie reads Michael's suicide note to the gang.

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What suicide note? Care to share?

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According to the book, Charlie gifts a poem to Patrick while playing Secret Santa. Patrick insists Charlie to read it out to everyone present in that room. Here's how it goes :
Once on a yellow piece of paper with green lines
he wrote a poem
and he called it "chops"
because that was the name of his dog
and that's what it was all about
his teacher gave him an A
and a gold star
and his mother hung it on the kitchen door
and read it to his aunts.
that was the year Father Tracy
took all the kids to the zoo
and he let them sing on the bus
and his little sister was born
with tiny nails and no hair
and his mother and father kissed a lot
and the girl around the corner sent him a
Valentine signed with a row of X's
and he had to ask his father what the X's meant
and his father always tucked him in bed at night
and was always there to do it

once on a piece of white paper with blue lines
he wrote a poem
he called it "Autumn"
because that was the name of the season
and that's what it was all about
and his teacher gave him an A
and asked him to write more clearly
and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
because of the new paint
and the kids told him
that Father Tracy smoked cigars
and left butts on the pews
and sometime they would burn holes
that was the year his sister got glasses
with thick lenses and black frames
and the girl around the corner laughed
when he asked her to go see santa claus
and the kids told him why
his mother and father kissed a lot
and his father never tucked him in bed at night
and his father got mad
when he cried for him to do it

once on a paper torn from his notebook
he wrote a poem
and he called it "Innocence: A Question"
because that was the question about his girl
and that's what it was all about
and his professor gave him an A
and a strange steady look
and his mother never hung it on the kitchen door
because he never showed her
that was the year Father Tracy died
and he forgot how the end
of the Apostles's Creed went
and he caught his sister
making out on the back porch
and his mother and father never kissed
or even talked
and the girl around the corner
wore too much make up
that made him cough when he kissed her
but he kissed her anyway
because it was the thing to do
and at 3 am he tucked himself into bed
his father snoring soundly

that's why on the back of a brown paper bag
he tried another poem
and he called it "Absolutely Nothing"
because that's what it was really all about
and he gave himself an A
and a slash on each damned wrist
and he hung it on the bathroom door
because this time he didn't think
he could reach the kitchen.

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I read the book the year it came out, I think it was in 1999, and I completely disagree with you. I dom't think the film captured the very special mood the story has at all. The film comes across too clean and somewhat bland.

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Oh.

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