I enjoyed this film but it fell short of the book. Ultimately, I was disappointed because I believe it was rushed and missed several important parts of the story that are integral to Ari's character development and the culmination at the end of the story.
They cut out about 50% of the book which was a mistake. It would have helped to include many more hang out scenes between the two. It was missing important character development between the main characters and understanding Dante's quirkiness as well as the scene with Dante's art book; Dante was uncomfortable with sharing it with Ari at first. There was a lot more but I will leave it at that.
Lastly, Dante. Nothing wrong with the acting but the portrayal of the character came off more desperate and predatory. Dante was not that; in the book he is easy to love, charismatic, loving, bizarre, random and constantly challenging Ari to step out of his comfort zone. In the film, they made him seem to persuade Ari to kiss, run out in the rain, etc for ulterior motive as opposed to it just being fun or truly learning things about themselves.
They cut out about 50% of the book which was a mistake. It would have helped to include many more hang out scenes between the two. It was missing important character development between the main characters and understanding Dante's quirkiness as well as the scene with Dante's art book; Dante was uncomfortable with sharing it with Ari at first. There was a lot more but I will leave it at that.
Lastly, Dante. Nothing wrong with the acting but the portrayal of the character came off more desperate and predatory. Dante was not that; in the book he is easy to love, charismatic, loving, bizarre, random and constantly challenging Ari to step out of his comfort zone. In the film, they made him seem to persuade Ari to kiss, run out in the rain, etc for ulterior motive as opposed to it just being fun or truly learning things about themselves.