Something Borrowed, Now to Return It

Years ago, I read Something Borrowed based on a friend's recommendation. It was a light, easy read. Nothing earth-shattering or stick-with-me.

Then the movie came out. It seemed liked the perfect movie for a fun girls' night out. Too bad I had just moved. The other night I caught it on one of the movie channels. I stayed up until midnight watching it.

Funny, I don't remember being so opinionated about who Rachel ended up with in the book. (In all honesty, I remember very little about the book.)

Long story short... Rachel has been in love with her best friend, Dex, since law school, yet she never told him. He meets her best friend and they end up engaged. During the engagement activities, Rex and Rachel feel drawn to one another again and start strolling down memory lane.

Maybe the movie was a poorly adapted version of the book, which is too often the case with books-turned-movies. Or, maybe I read the book and got swept away. I don't remember, but I was so annoyed with Dex and Rachel that I wanted to throw my remote at the screen. Did they get together? Yes. Did I want them to? No.

I wanted more for Rachel than some guy who could only fall for her once he fell for someone else. Even with the eye candy that is Colin Egglesfield, Dex was a ruined character. Instead, I found myself wanting Rachel to end up with her best friend, Ethan. Sadly, she did to him what Rex initially did to her. She broke his heart.

Why all this pontificating on a movie? I find why characters and story do and don't work fascinating. The book didn't offend me, the movie did. I don't even remember the character of Ethan from the book, but I was besotted with him in the movie version. There's a study to be done here.

The winners in this. Emily Giffin, who sold me a story that producers couldn't, and John Krasinski, who created an Ethan I could sink my teeth into. No pun intended.

When a book/movie annoys you, do you try to figure out why? Or do you simply chalk it up to preference and mood?