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Saturday, February 28, 2015

The DUFF: Movie vs Book

The Duff

Movie VS Book 


I just recently read the DUFF by Kody Keplinger this past month. I was extremely impressed and gave it a 4 out of 5 stars. I was really surprised by it's depth especially for a contemporary novel written by a teenager. I loved the characters and I how the themes of family, love, friendship, and substance abuse played out. When I saw that they were making a DUFF movie I was beyond excited. After watching the first trailer though I realized that the movie probably wouldn't be anything like the book. After watching the movie tonight I can say that the book and movie have almost nothing in common. Where the book has lots of sex, the movie has none. Where the books main character pretty much only has a father, the movie version of Bianca only has a mother. In the book Bianca is extremely close with her friends but in the movie we barley see them at all. 

The movie centers on Bianca finding out that she is the DUFF of her friend group and embarking on a quest to un-duff herself. It ends up having much less depth then the original book. I actually found myself wondering why Kody Keplinger would let the movie makers essentially make the movie adaptation of her book an entirely different story. I will list below all of the ways I can think of that the movie differs from the book. 

1. Sex. The book has a ton of sex and the movie has absolutely none. 
2. Toby Tucker is a ridiculously smart guy in the book who has just had a tough break up with his girlfriend. In the movie he is a jerky guitar player who is just trying to hook up with Bianca's best friends. 
3. Wesley rush is not Bianca's neighbor in the book. He is also pretty stinking rich and extremely intelligent. 
4. Bianca does not focus on un-duffing herself in the book. Instead she is trying to use Wesley for sex in order to mentally escape her tough family situation. 
5. Mean girl Madison makes no appearance in the book. 
6. Bianca has to deal with quite a bit of cyber bullying in the movie that doesn't happen in the book. 
7. The addition of the homecoming dance to the movie. 
8. Bianca's mother and father are going through a divorce in the book which causes her father to "fall off the wagon". In the movie you only see a mother.  

Okay, I am going to stop there with the list. It honestly would be easier to say that the only things that are the same between the movie and the book are the names of the characters and the concept of the DUFF. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this movie adaptation, I just enjoyed the book better. I was slightly disappointed that the movie didn't tell the amazing and meaningful story the book did but it was also a fun and funny way to spend a couple of hours. I think any book lover could understand why I dislike book to movie adaptations that do not follow their books. Never-the-less I would recommend that anyone who loves the book go and see the movie! 


Have a great day bookworms!

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