book to movie – Mimi's Thoughts

Good Intentions

I shared here weeks ago how I was Stepping Into Wuthering Heights.

That book stayed with me… Still on my mind. It won’t let me be.

While I was reading I couldn’t stop thinking about one moment, that small moment when Mr. Earnshaw brings Heathcliff home. Just like that. He didn’t even give an explanation. Just… “this child has no one, so now he’s mine.”

And look at what that one decision turned into.

It honestly messed with me a bit.

Usually, we like to believe that if you do something kind, it will lead to something good. Right?… Simple. Clean. You help someone, things get better. But that’s not what happens here at all. That one act of compassion ends up stirring jealousy, resentment, and eventually so much damage it spills into the next generation.

And it made me think about real life.

I’ve had moments where I meant well… really well, but things didn’t turn out the way I imagined. Sometimes people misunderstood me. Sometimes what I gave created expectations I didn’t even know I was setting. Sometimes it just… complicated things.

This doesn’t mean I was wrong to be kind… I think people are just not simple.

Everyone is carrying something. Pride, insecurity, pain, history. So when you step in with “good intentions,” you’re not stepping into an empty space, you’re stepping into all of that.

That’s what happened with Heathcliff. The kindness was real, but the environment wasn’t healthy… And that changed everything.

I don’t think the lesson is “don’t be kind.” That feels too harsh and even too defensive.

If anything, it’s this: good intentions are not enough on their own…
…What happens after matters. How people receive what you give matters. The space you’re giving into matters…. And sometimes, even when you do everything from a good place, things can still go sideways.

It’s kind of uncomfortable to admit that, but it also feels honest.

So maybe I’m learning to hold my kindness with a bit more awareness… Not to stop giving, but to understand that it doesn’t give me control over the outcome… I guess that’s the hard part, isn’t it?

Reminders of Him

Contrary to some reviews I’ve seen, I think the adaptation of Reminders of Him was not so bad at all. Maybe because I expected worse, maybe because movie makers often leave out so many important details.

Don’t get me wrong, details were left out here too… especially the background story for Kenna. Nothing was really mentioned there, and if you know the book, you know just how much that backstory carries the emotional weight of everything else.

I think that’s the tricky thing with adaptations. If you have not read it, you may feel it lacks a thing or two, and you won’t even know what it is. It just feels… slightly hollow in places. But because I read the book, I comfortably filled in the gaps. I knew what wasn’t being said, I could feel the missing layers, and somehow that made the experience fuller for me.

Watching it felt like reading between the lines in real time… like my mind was quietly supplying all the depth the screen couldn’t quite hold.

On the whole, I think it was a decent job. Not perfect, not complete, but still worth the watch… especially if, like me, you walked in already carrying the story in your heart.

One large thumbs up to Tyriq Leshon Withers, the actor who played the role of Ledger… I want to see more of him in such roles.

The Love Hypothesis

It was one of those nights, I decided to give tiktok some minutes of my time before going to bed.

You see, I built my tiktok ‘for you’ page brick by brick, so I get excited when I go there because; I’m going to definitely see a few standup comedy videos…Sebastian Maniscalco will be in atleast one, I’m going to see cats being naughty, then I’m going to see a cute guy dance, maybe Chris Brown. The one thing that’s definitely going to show up more than others is something booktok related.

Booktok is a community on tiktok where you watch videos that give reviews, recommendations, reactions, and have discussions about books.

So, as I scrolled and flipped last night, I saw a video post by Lili Reinhart. I froze, and then I watched it again just to be sure. She will be playing the role of Olive Smith in the Television adaptation of Ali Hazelwood’s The love Hypothesis.

Typical me, I jumped on the search platforms online to see the full cast. I found out Tom Bateman will be playing Dr. Adam Carlsen. I think it’s a good cast. Fans seem to be divided though. More than half of the readers had hoped Adam Driver would be cast if ever the book became a movie.

The Love Hypothesis is a STEM themed funny, nerdy and heartwarming romance novel. If this is your kind of thing and you want to read it before it hits the screens, now is the time.

The release date is not announced yet but filming has begun and is being produced by Amazon MGM Studios, MRC, and Bisous Pictures.

I think I might browse that book again while I wait

I’m super excited.

Someone Like You

I think I may be one of the biggest fans of a good romantic comedy, in film or in a book.

Some years ago, maybe twenty years, two movies captured my attention, I think may have seen both of them back then at least 10 times each. Over the years I’ve continued to repeat one of them; ‘The Wedding Planner’. The other one is ‘Someone Like You’.

Both of these movies were released in 2001.

Someone Like You is about a lady who is dumbed by her boyfriend, she begins to study the male animal, finding reasons why they act the way they do. She zooms in on her womanizing roommate as a case study. What she doesn’t prepare for, is how things turn out in the end. I think seeing Ashley Judd and Hugh Jackman in those roles also contributed to how much I loved the film.

Last year, I saw a preview of a film adaptation of Karen Kingsbury’s book, ‘Someone Like You’. I have not read the book and I am eager to. I am also eager to jump on the film. I fear I may not read it anymore if I see the film.

The film was released in April,2024. It goes by the same name as the book.

I hope I like it just as much as I liked the older one even though they are not alike. The later is a romance drama while the former is a romance comedy.

This and then that

I like to read books and then watch the television adaptations. I’m not sure when I decided I liked this but in the last six months, I’ve gone from the Lost flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland to The Idea of you by Robin Lee and then Beth O’Leary’s The Flat Share.

I love The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. The book taught me a few new things and then it made me think too…I love it when a book makes me pause just to think. The television series was just okay.

I had a lot to say about The Idea of You in my posts The Idea Of You and The Idea of You…2… book and film were lovely.

For The Flat Share, I loved the book but I think the television version could have been better than the attempt that was made. You see, it’s such a good story line, two people who share a flat but never get to see each other until they finally do of course. Tiffy gets the Flat from 6pm to 8am on weekdays and weekends. Leon, who actually owns the Flat works nights at a hospice, so he gets 8am to 6pm on weekdays and spends the weekends at his girlfriend’s place. Convenient and economical for both of them. The novel plays out nicely and it ends well. I can’t say the same for the film, a six part series, forty five minutes each.

Next in line…The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave, I’ve got a forty pages to go with the book. I hope I enjoy the television series. I already love the fact that the Main role is played by Jennifer Garner and it’s a thriller.

The Idea of You…2

Yesterday, the long awaited movie dropped.

I planned to see it as soon as I got the notification but I couldn’t make the time. As soon as I woke up this morning, I got some pop up news on my phone from different blogs and sites I had subscribed to.

I saw different headlines for reviews… I refused to read them. I wanted to see it for myself first. To decide for myself.

Two headlines caught my attention though… The first one was the exact same title I had planned to use for my post-movie review… The big differences between the book and the movie; The Idea of You.

The second one got me thinking a lot and wondering if I agreed with the poster… It read “The Idea of You is basically about bad parenting“. Right now, I don’t agree.

Today I paused everything in the middle of the day and gave a hundred and ten minutes to the movie.

I’m not going to juxtapose the book with the movie. It would not be fair to the movie.

Standing alone, It was a lovely movie.

I loved the boy band nostalgia I felt with all of August Moon’s performances. The memories of Backstreet Boys, NSYNC and others. The songs… The songs were and are beautiful… I got goose bumps when they performed Closer at Coachella.

I loved the choice of characters for the roles of Solene and Hayes. They had great chemistry.

I love that he was still singing about her, 5 years after they said goodbye.