I enjoyed this movie but it definitely felt rushed! I felt the movie could have definitely been longer. For instance, I felt the movie could have developed the relationship between America and his brother much better. I wanted to know if they reconciled. I wanted to see them buld a relationship. I'm not really sure if it was left open-ended on purpose or if they just rushed. Lifetime alwayd does this with most of it's movies.
shareI completely agree! I felt like there could have been way more to it, that they could have gone deeper with it. Really sucks how rushed it was.
Oh, what fools these mortals be.
It was a teen book made into a movie. If you don't want to feel rushed, buy the book and read it very s l o w ;-)
shareI agree.I was very exited to watch this when I saw the trailer.Then after I watched it I was like, is this it?
shareI thought it moved slowly for the first 3/4 of it. I even wondered if it was going to last 2.5 hours instead of the usual 2 hour timeslot. Then, all of a sudden, they crammed 90% of the story into the last 20 minutes. I thought it was a good movie, but I wish they had spent more time on all the stuff that happened at the end of the movie.
Also, I would have preferred hearing America talk more about his life instead of showing flashbacks of his childhood & the sexual abuse. Those parts freaked me out even though the child actor playing America was never in an unsafe scene (a lot was implied).
They could have fleshed out the growing relationship he had with his counselor, why he learned to trust her, his relationship with his brother- whether or not they reconnected, what happened to his mother (overdose? Did she ever have more kids? Is she alive? Did she attempt rehab/recovery?), his relationships with kids at the center (did he ever see Liza again, other than sending her a letter? Did he make more friends at the center?). I also wished they had made it a sappy, happy ending with him going to college or at least have something goos happen to him so we (the audience) knows his life turned out alright.
I agree with you and I don't agree. I agree that it was weird the movie had this steady pace throughout and then they crammed his life into the last 20 minutes.
I liked that parts of his life were explained through flashbacks and I think I would have prefered that story ended that way rather than his opening up all a sudden and spilling his guts at the end.
I liked the movie all in all. I think they left the ending so wide open because the charachter "America" represented not just this one individual but alllllllll kids who grew up the way he did.
I saved the movie on DVR I'm going to watch it again. :)
"You just passed 3-conomics! / Oh snap!!"
The implied ending was given twice in the movie. Rosie said in the dialog that some kids do get their GED and go to college. When Rosie is walking with America, she said some kids do make it, and America was one of them. Then they showed him in what looks like an apartment reading Liza's letter. I assumed he made it to college, as Rosie had suggested.
shareI had read the book. which is why i watched the film. The book was alot better
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