Tuesday, October 09, 2018

The Hate U Give Movie

I read the book. Movies and books are different things. So I always go in expecting changes and hoping that the essence of it remains the same. "The Hate U Give" is the story of Starr who lives in Garden Heights - a majority black neighborhood that gets described on the news as crime ridden and goes to a private school that is majority white, and majority, let's say kids who get cars when they turn 16. She feels divided, one person at home and one at school. Things come to a head when she witnesses a police officer shooting her childhood best friend and has to grapple with how coming forward might change things both at home and at school. 
I had heard some describe the ending as powerful if overly neat and I think that's fair. The movie doesn't pretend to have all the answers for how to fix things and it raises way more issues than it attempts to resolve. 
I feel there are parts of the movie that go a tiny bit deeper than the book, ratchet the tension a little tighter but a lot of that is seeing the things. The movie did a nice job of balancing funny moments so you could let out a little, breathe a little, it's alot. It should be a lot. 
I had read the book and so knew exactly what was coming in some key moments and still jumped in my seat. I have a friend who found the book had her feeling so much deja vu for high school, wasn't sure she could finish. The gunshots surprised me, the teargas canisters surprised me, so it is not going to be a movie I would recommend for anyone with flash bang PTSD. 
It is a great movie. It does justice to the book. There were a few changes I am less certain of, including one that made the book ending seem a little less neat in comparison, but these are the tiniest of quibbles.