Tagline:
Live life at full brightness.

Wide Release Date:
February 28, 2020

Directed by:
Brett Haley
Screenplay by:
Jennifer Niven, Liz Hannah
Based on the novel by:
Jennifer Niven
Produced by:
Paula Mazur, Mitchell Kaplan, Elle Fanning, Brittany Kahan-Ward, Doug Mankoff, Andrew Spaulding

Starring:
Elle Fanning
Justice Smith
Alexandra Shipp
Kelli O’Hara
Lamar Johnson
Virginia Gardner
Felix Mallard
Sofia Hasmik
Keegan-Michael Key
Luke Wilson

PREGAME THOUGHTS

I’m on some sort of weird teen romantic drama kick right now. Maybe I’m missing something in my life! Maybe I have more X chromosomes than I initially thought! lol! Sexist jokes, always fucking hilarious. Right everyone?? Haha!

I was recommended this movie on Netflix after watching Five Feet Apart, so I went for it. The Fanning sisters are good actors. I had no other information going in. I hope it doesn’t suck.

THE 700(ish)-WORD SYNOPSIS

Welcome to lovely, shitty Indiana. Elle Fanning is Violet Markey, a teenage girl who was a passenger in a car crash that killed her sister, Eleanor, nine months ago. Justice Smith is Theodore Finch, a teenage boy labelled a freak by many of his classmates. They go to same school, are in the same grade, even in the same class, but, somehow, they don’t even know each other.

I hear it’s the best time of year to hop off the bridge. The water is stupendous.

While running on a crisp autumn morning, Finch spots Violet standing on the ledge of the bridge near the crash site. He talks her down, but not before jumping on himself and happily fooling around. Violet is not amused, but nonetheless starts noticing Finch’s eccentricities at school. Finch spends a lot of time in Counselor Keegan-Michael Key‘s office… sorry, Richard Embry… taking absolutely nothing seriously. Violet spends a lot of time being sad. They’re a match made in heaven!

Their class is assigned a project involved travelling around Indiana and documenting their explorations. Finch picks Violet as a partner. Since Violet is terrified of cars, the two of them bike to various underwhelming Indiana landmarks. One after another. Finch is not discouraged by Violet’s depression and unwillingness to be enthusiastic. If nothing else, he works harder on lifting her spirits.

After many excursions, she builds a trust. Finch eventually convinces her to get in his car to visit farther Indiana attractions, including some guy’s homemade mini roller coaster. As time goes on, Violet lightens up more and more until she realizes that he has fallen in love with Finch. They do kisses and teenage banging.

Not responsible for blunt force trauma and and/or certain death.

The movie shifts gears about halfway through. Finch starts acting strange. He’s already strange, but this is something different. He disappears for days at a time, he doesn’t return texts, he’s unengaged. His closest friends wave this off as normal, that he does this all the time, that he always comes back. Violet becomes wary. Eventually, Finch comes back acting like his old self.

During a trip to the Blue Hole lake, the two swim around and Finch disappears underwater long enough to scare the shit out of Violet. Not havin’ it anymore, Violet demands to know what’s going on with him and what the hell his problem is and what the fuck is his fucking problem ad infinitum and etc. He explains, vaguely, that he was severely abused by his father during when he got into his “dark moods”. Finch also experiences these dark moods. Surprise! Bipolar disorder!

A couple of events during his manic episode causes Finch to briefly sway the other way. Violet’s ex-boyfriend calls him a freak in the hallway and Finch starts kicking his ass in front of the whole student body. Violet and Finch accidentally stay out all night, which terrifies her parents and spurs mistrust. He loses his mind about both of these situations and slips back into Sad Finch. He tries group counseling, but it doesn’t work. He tries talking to his sister Kate (Alexandra Shipp) about their father and why he may have felt the way he felt and did what he did, but she’s very adamant against talking about their father in any capacity. So that doesn’t work either.

A completely distraught Violet visits Finch’s house and checks out his weird sticky-noted room. He comes back while she’s there and explains his own “dark moods” and his attempts to snap out of it during these hard times (what he calls “staying awake”). It’s not working this time. It’s worse than it’s ever been before. He knows Violet can’t help him, and he rudely yells at her to get out of his house.

Why do I have “call mom” written down 800 times? Mom is dead!

When Finch disappears again, Violet returns to the Blue Hole lake and discovers his clothes, wallet, and phone all lying on the cliff. She breaks down in tears knowing that he deliberately drowned. They had one last location to visit: the Traveler’s Prayers Chapel. There she finds that he had signed the guestbook with the very phrase that Violet had decided she wanted as her own epitaph.

Violet presents their project alone, reminiscing about all the life lessons that Finch had taught her in the few weeks they had together and coming out of it a more fulfilled person.

TOM’S DISCUSSION CORNER

TOPIC 1 — Manic Pixie Dream Boy

The first half of the movie made me very nervous for two reasons: 1) everything was so positive and happy-go-lucky that it seemed like this was going to be nothing more than some fantastical over-optimistic, shallow love story, and 2) everything was so positive and happy-go-lucky that I was expecting something really fucked up to happen out of nowhere. Maybe because it had an MA rating and that means anything could happen.

PRETEND TO BE HAPPY.

Luckily, neither case was true. The second half of the movie isn’t positive, and nothing totally fucked up happens… except maybe a suicide, but I saw it coming once the depression side of Finch kicked in full force.

Once we were in the clear and the movie became something more than just a weird, selfless kid being completely uninhibited and helping a young woman feel better about her life, I enjoyed the subversion of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. Usually it’s the girl that serves as nothing more than a plot vehicle to help the depressed boy (*cough Garden State  *cough*), but not only is it the other way around in All the Bright Places, it’s subverted even further by making the Manic Pixie Dream Boy riddled with bigger problems than everybody else.

The caveat is that the movie eventually seems to become entirely about Finch’s struggles instead of Violet’s, but by the end it’s always been about Violet. Finch helped her become a better person, or at least a person with a better outlook, at his own expense. Violet could be helped, and Finch was a lost cause. At least he made a mark on the world before he left even if he wasn’t able to, as he puts it, “stay awake”.

Thanks for ruining the guestbook, Mr. Sharpie.

TOPIC 2 — Leaving an Impact on Someone

Yeah, this is really the big theme. The important takeaway at the end is that, even though Finch is gone, Violet has all the good times to remember him by. Not to mention all the tremendous help his involvement in her life gave her to move through her trauma. Finch’s suicide was like the final test! And she passed!

Violet’s progression from completely detached and miserable to warily trusting to actually happy was realistic and, in my opinion, an incredible performance by Fanning. I preferred her vastly over Smith’s performance as Finch, who didn’t necessary suck, but there wasn’t enough depth to the character beyond “my dad was abusive and also bipolar”. HOWEVER, their chemistry is great, and some of the laughs they share seem so genuine that they may not have been acting. And perhaps Finch is just thrilled to be helping someone else instead of trying to help himself. Maybe he has more optimism about Violet than he does for his own damn self.

One might say that Violet didn’t leave an impact on Finch if the conclusion was straight-up suicide. I think that’s prime baloney, sir. She drove him to suicide! No, sorry. It’s actually tragic! Violet, this person Finch ended up loving so much, became terrified at his erratic behavior. The very same type of erratic behavior from his own father that terrified him! Of course it tore him up to pieces. And when Finch TOLD her that he “is the freak” and is “fucked up”, she didn’t deny it. She didn’t deny it!

So yeah, it’s Violet’s fault! Analysis over.

OK, fine. It’s only about 95% your fault, Violet. Happier?

IMDb TRIVIA FUNHOUSE!

Elle Fanning was cast for the lead five months prior to the release of the book.
Well shit, that’s a little optimistic. What if she drove her car straight into a wall next to a bridge? Then they would be shit out of luck, wouldn’t they? They would’ve had cast Mario Van Peebles for the role as Violet.

The book is written in dual perspective of both Finch and Violet.
Yes, yes, that is very interesting. Hey, just like the movie! Isn’t it nice how things like that JUST HAPPEN?

Before I die I want to… try every Jelly Belly jelly bean flavor.

Author Jennifer Niven had stated that she had dreamed of Nicholas Hoult playing Finch.
And then what happened? Did they decide that they needed a light-skinned black kid instead because people would more readily believe the abusive father angle? That’s racist, man. Should’ve cast the ghostly, pasty white Hoult kid.

On July 23rd 2018, author Jennifer Niven announced that Justice Smith had been cast for the role of Finch, causing controversy with fans due to his lack of similarity with the character that was portrayed in the book.
Oh, I see. More racism! It never ends, does it? They should’ve really gone with the book portrayal: a Danny DeVito-type.

In the book All The Bright Places the story takes place in the state of Indiana.
THANKS FOR PAYING ATTENTION, IMDb TRIVIA CONTRIBUTOR.

Both Violet and Finch are seventeen.
Nope! Upon the movie’s release, Elle Fanning was 21 and Justice Smith was 25. Do you know what I hate about teen movies? Not enough OLD PEOPLE cast as teenagers.

When, near the end of the movie, Violet is browsing through the guest book in a church, you can see that a special guest visited earlier: Mick Jagger, from England.
Why? So he can suck some pussy in the Traveler’s Prayers Chapel? Hell yeah.

Luke Wilson, you scamp! What are you doing here, you silly goose?!

IS IT WORTH A WATCH?

It’s ok. People seem to love the book, which I didn’t know existed until after I watched the movie. General consensus is that the movie botched some of the characterization and some interpersonal relationship nuances. I thought the movie was kind of fluffy, even with respect to the serious subject matter, and I wouldn’t see it again. Not terrible, though. Just forgettable. I keep forgetting the name of the movie! Something about All the Small Things.