After watching To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before I bought and read the entire trilogy in one day...
And don’t hate me but I have to say that I actually like the movie better than the books and I understand why they made the changes that they did. Just a warning, this post contains spoilers for the books and the movie so don’t read if you don’t want to be spoiled. Okay here are some of the changes that I thought were for the better:
1) Kitty mailed those letters out of a desire to see her sister happy and with someone instead of out of revenge which makes Kitty look better in the movie and then you don’t have to deal with the added complication of Kitty having a crush on Josh as well as Lara Jean having a crush on Josh.
2) They dealt with the fallout of the letters all at once which saved time and moved the story forward much quicker. Also they still had Lara Jean essentially jump Peter’s bones which was a nice touch.
3) I really liked that in the movie the fake relationship thing was Peter’s idea because it really shows that he’s into her from the start. In the book, Lara Jean told Josh that she was dating Peter and he just kind of went along with it. Also I liked how in the movie she told him “Let’s do it” and he kissed her in front of his lacrosse team. Definitely more cinematic.
4) Oh and I like the way they handle the contract better in the movie than in the book with Lara Jean being the one to tell Peter he could have a hand in her back pocket and how they wrote down the movies they needed to watch together. Oh and I LOVE how strongly Peter protested the whole “No kissing” rule here. In the book he was kind of fine with it after an unsuccessful attempt to kiss her at her locker.
5) It was probably for the best that they avoided the kiss with Lara Jean and Josh in this movie. In that way they kind of avoided the love triangle aspect, or at least resolved it much sooner, and they already had the conflict they needed between Margot and Lara Jean when Margot found out about the letter Lara Jean wrote to Josh.
6) I also think it makes sense that they essentially combined the scene at the ski lodge in the book when they talk about actually liking each other for real with the hot tub scene in the book. Again it saves on time and it moves things along faster and also I like that in the movie he went to get her yogurt drinks from a Korean store that was on the other side of town as opposed to donuts you can buy anywhere.
7) It was also a good idea for them to take stuff from the second book and use it in this movie, like the whole fallout from the video.Because of course when things get bad they have to get worse.
8) I’m so glad the movie ended with Lara Jean and Peter officially back together. It’s fine to have the book end with Lara Jean writing Peter a love letter, but that wouldn’t have been a satisfying way to end the movie. Since a film is a visual medium, the audience really needed to see Lara Jean and Peter get together and have their happy ending and the movie delivered on that.
9) I also like it that the movie was a bit open ended and left room for a sequel. I would definitely be interested in seeing more of Lara Jean’s and Peter’s relationship but I hope if they make a sequel they deviate more from Peter and Gen’s relationship in the book. In the book, Peter eventually found out that Gen was responsible for filming that video of them in the hot tub and putting it online and yes he did talk to her about that and tell her not to hurt Lara Jean again, but I honestly think he should have cut her out of his life (at least for a little while) after that. I mean, how could you possibly be that nice to someone who deliberately hurt someone you care about? Sorry to use the same gif twice but look at how hurt she was by it
Anyways overall I did enjoy the books after I read them, but like I said I like the movie more because of reasons….like how freaking cute they are in this scene
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