“Come bother me, baby.” Benjamin Walker as Travis, The Choice

First thing to note is that I am typically NOT a fan of Nicholas Sparks’ movies. I do like The Notebook but that’s about it. I don’t like how much the movies change from the books. But somehow, someway, big stars keep joining these movies and these movies keep getting made. But this one surprised me – there were changes, yes, but the movie’s base story was still there and the changes were not nearly as bad as they have been in the past.

SPOILER ALERT

Again, a lot of the feel of the book was the same, but there were some changes that were a little more significant to me. I don’t mind changes, as long as they feel necessary for a book to movie transition.

The biggest change that I noticed was that the car wreck was different, but they managed to keep the concept of Travis being/feeling guilty for causing the wreck in the first place. Travis was late for a dinner date so Gabby finally decided to leave the restaurant early, which is when she was in the wreck.

That being said, they also changed one of the biggest aspects of “the choice” that had to be made: we didn’t hear that Gabby had actually already chosen to be taken off the machines at a certain point. That was what made the choice so much harder for Travis. He didn’t want to let Gabby go, even though it was her wish, because he felt guilty about the wreck. And it ended up being the best choice since she later woke up and was essentially fine.

SUMMARY

The whole concept of her meeting her neighbor and falling in love with him in like 3 days was carried over (still not on board with that whole thing, but oh well) and we saw more of her previous relationship. I thought the casting was better than I expected it to be just from watching the trailer. I definetly recommend reading the book over the movie (I cried HARD in the book but not so much in the movie) but they are both good enough to spend some time on.

GRADE: B