Read it and Weep

The newest Disney Channel original movie, Read it and Weep, premiered on Friday. It was disappointingly unremarkable. Not particularly bad, not particularly good, just very much a Disney Channel Movie.

Jaime, a 14 year old girl, not popular, but not really a loser, deals with her frustrations by writing in her journal. In her journal she creates a fabulous alter ego, IS, who stands up to bullies and popular kids, offering justice for all kids. In this movie, the alter ego is played by the older, prettier sister of the actress playing Jaime.

The journal accidentally gets emailed as Jaime’s essay contest entry, and ends up winning a writing prize, even though the stories happen in about 2-4 sentence intervals. So the names of the characters in the story are disguised, and no one is smart enough to figure it out. And, magically, she gets her diary published as a book, and it becomes a best seller. All the while, everyone is dumb enough to think it’s complete fiction. Until she accidentally blurts it out on a tv interview. Of course, the school turns on her. Meanwhile, the alter ego is getting more pushy, and obnoxious, and in control of Jaime’s life.

Of course there’s a romantic sub-plot. Of course she has a crush on the most popular, beautiful boy in school. And of course he’s dumb as a doornail. All the while her best boy friend wants to be more than friends. Predictably, when she’s popular the crush asks her out, she finds out he’s lame, and in a really good plot move involving poetry (bleh) and a letter to the editor of the school paper she finds out she’s been in love with her boy friend the whole time.

Honestly, the resolution is a little fuzzy to me. Somehow the school stops hating her. Somehow her real friends that she’s been ignoring stop hating her. Somehow there’s a valuable lesson learned, maybe about not letting fame go to your head, or the value of real friendship, or something. And it all works out okay.

Mostly, I spent the whole movie distracted by her tablet/laptop computer. You know, the one where the screen swirls around. Witchcraft, I say. I can’t imagine that thing lasting very long.

This movie was a book first. I read the book yesterday. It was very different from the movie. And skewed a bit older. The alter ego isn’t a character as much as a wish to be more assertive. There are two whole subplots 1 about body image, and 1 about some girl with trouble at home who almost runs away with a 28 year old she meets on the internet. And the romance is much less of a plot. Also, one of the friends ditches school, a lot, because her parents don’t pay attention. I think the book is much more about coping with the situations you’re in

Yeah, this is a boring post. But, I said I’d post, and here it is.

Don't waste your time watching the movie, give Wendy Wu, or High School Musical a go first. Or, if your lucky my favorite, Life-Size, will be on.