MovieChat Forums > The Spectacular Now (2013) Discussion > Movie ending better than book ending? (s...

Movie ending better than book ending? (spoilers, obviously)

posted 10 years ago by Screen_Queen
4 replies | jump to latest

I saw the movie before reading the book, and I have to say the movie did a fantastic job of staying true to the novel. I have no doubt that if I had read the book first, the movie would have portrayed everything as I had imagined it exactly. However, I have to say I much prefer the movie's ending to the book's. I wasn't necessarily thinking Sutter was going to stay with Aimee for sure - but to end it with him lying to her and planning to break her heart, drinking after abstaining and aiming to be a better person, and not changing as a character at all? That really crushed me as an ending. I loved every bit of the book up until that moment. I'm guessing it was Tharp's intention to show that Sutter will always be Sutter, and he'll probably never change, and that in reality a lot of people don't. But I felt like it was a waste of a really good book. The character arc was there, the story was wide open for Sutter to change, and when he doesn't it just fell flat. I'm taking the ending to be exactly as it is, but is there another meaning that Tharp intended? And does anyone else feel the same way as I do about the ending?

When you grow up, your heart dies.

[–] lookingforthemagic 10 years ago

I was talking to my friend about this the other day. She was wondering why they had to change the ending of the movie, but we both decided that if Sutter had no character arc and didn't change at all by the end of the film people would not have embraced the movie like they did. There has to be some sort of character arc.

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I am Jack's broken heart

[–] speeder-985-717588 10 years ago

I just saw the movie but haven't read the book. This is why some people hate books. Ever notice how many great books are overwhelmingly pessimistic? Why? Authors seem to feel their job is to peel off everyone's rose colored glasses, but many portray a world through jaundiced glasses--which is just as much of a distortion of life.

[–] eatomson 10 years ago

But most people don't change all that much. I thought he did have a character arc: he developed enough self-awareness to realize that, for all his plans to change, he probably wasn't going to. That he would stay a good-timing party-boy, with a low-level job and a drinking problem (none of which was going to get any more attractive as he got older) and that he would only drag Aimee down. He grew enough as a person to let her go, for her sake. After all, she was the one growing, moving on. She might miss him, but she'd have a new life, new friends, etc. She'd get over him. It's not like he was the one moving on, leaving her stuck at home, waiting for him to come back.

[–] dwarol 9 years ago

Yeah, when he told his boss in the movie that he probably wasn't going to change I had to wonder if it was the result of genuine reflection or just the first step on becoming a drunk like his father. A lot of alcoholics tell themselves they can never change, so just have another drink.