Out of My Mind: a crazy disappointing adaptation
I was a big reader when I was a kid. I got the chance to read so many phenomenal, life changing books, including one of my all time favorites “Out of My Mind.” I know book movie adaptations are often disappointing, but because of “Wonder,” another one of my favorites, and the recent Disney adaptations, like “Percy Jackson,” I let myself have a little bit of hope.
Remembering how much I loved the book as a kid, I reread it in the last week leading up to the movie’s release, but in hindsight maybe that was a bad idea. It made me really excited to see the movie, and the anticipation probably just raised my standards unfairly high.
“Out of My Mind” is the story of 11-year-old Melody, a girl born with cerebral palsy, and her journey as she works to make the people around her understand that just because she can’t physically talk, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have a lot to say. Because she definitely does. She’s a really bright, clever, and funny kid, but because nobody’s ever taken a chance on her, no one but her family and neighbor knows that. Having so much to say and not being able to say it is extremely frustrating, but she shows her resilience and persistence as she pushes through and shows everyone around her, including herself, exactly what she’s capable of.
When turning a nearly 300 page book into a movie some plot points are obviously going to be taken out. However, this movie took some creative liberties I am not too fond of. Not only did it completely exclude important scenes, but some were changed so much so to the point that some characters became completely different. I understand that changes have to be made, but they took this way too far. Warning: mild spoilers ahead.
In the movie Melody didn’t become friends with Rose until after the unfortunate DC trip, however in the book they were friends before the whiz kids team was even introduced. This movie trashed their entire relationship. In the book they had a strong, beautiful friendship that started when Melody first got integrated into “normal” sixth grade classes, yet in the movie Rose treats her terribly until after she confronts Mr. Dimming and the whiz kids team when they get back from DC. In the book Rose’s defining character trait was that she was incredibly kind. She was Melody’s best friend. Yet in the movie she was almost never her friend.
The second major character that was changed was Catherine, my favorite character. In the book she was one of Melody’s biggest supporters, even helping Melody find the Medi Talker. But in the movie it seemed like she was barely involved in Melody’s life. And also she was randomly a doctor for some reason? The only point of which was to solve the insurance subplot that completely deviated from the book.
Besides these massive and completely unnecessary character alterations, there were two major changes that made me very upset.
Number one. The first words Melody said to her parents through the Medi Talker. In the book it was an incredibly sweet moment. After school one day she worked hard with her neighbor Mrs. V to compile a bunch of words and phrases to surprise her parents when they got home from work. As soon as they walked in the door she said the thing she’d wanted to say most since the moment she was born. “Hi, Dad. Hi, Mom. I am so happy. I love you.” It was definitely one of the many points in the book that made me cry.
The movie also made me cry. But they were certainly not tears of happiness. They were tears of rage. Her mom was there when she set it up. And when her dad got home the first thing she told him was that her fish had jumped out of the bowl, it wasn’t her who killed him. Well. First of all, in the book it was her mom that was there to see the fish and the tank lying on the ground. Not her dad. Secondly, Melody never mentioned the fish again after the incident at the beginning of the book. This change not only omits a really sweet, important moment in the book, but it replaces it with one that doesn’t even make sense. That part of her story didn’t need closure. Telling her parents she loves them is infinitely more important.
The second massive change is honestly too massive to even think about. The whole whiz kids section of the movie was completely different from the book, and it was told in a way that unnecessarily villainized certain characters.
In the movie she only studied for the selection test once. In the movie, Mr. Dimming, the advisor for the whiz kids, never even looked at Melody’s selection test, which meant he wrongly selected the kids for the team. In the book, she studied every second she had time, with help from Catherine, Mrs. V, and her parents.
In the book, Mr. Dimming looked at and graded her test, and he also announced that she made the team when he announced the other members. I don’t like these changes because it doesn’t show how important getting on that team was to Melody, and it alters Mr. Dimming’s character completely.
In the movie, how the kids treated Melody was greatly exaggerated, and they acted much worse. In the book most of the kids on the team were her friends, which made the betrayal of leaving her in Ohio hurt much worse. And, it was. The kids in the book, the kids who were her friends, went out to lunch without her, and then left for DC when storms hit the east coast without even trying to contact her.
The kids in the movie who were definitely not her friends still had breakfast without her, yet they at least told her to rush to the airport, but she was too late. There were other weird, seemingly random changes such as the questions, the answers, and names in the whiz kids competition, but there was one that really stuck out to me. For some reason one of the main characters, a girl who was an alternate to the team and a bully to Melody, names got changed. In the book it was Molly, but in the movie it was Jodie. I understand changing or omitting some parts for simplicity’s sake, but I don’t understand changing basic aspects of characters for seemingly no reason.
This movie was frustrating to watch as someone who’s read and absolutely adored the book, but there were quite a few little jokes and such that only someone who’s read it before would notice. Like her thoughts being voiced by Jennifer Anniston because she was obsessed with Friends, or the jokes she would always make about her mom when she was getting bathed.
But I still could not get over how one of my favorite books had been so disastrously adapted. And I know my best friend, who was watching it with me, knows I felt that way because I could not help myself occasionally making remarks about how upset I was and screaming throughout the entirety of the movie.
Although there were many major plot changes I could not seem to get past, the movie itself wasn’t too terrible. The actors were phenomenal, the shots were pretty, and the score sounded really nice. And I liked the added touch of using close ups of Melody’s communication board to show what she was thinking.
But the writing and overall plot needed more work. A little more love maybe. It just seemed as if whoever wrote the movie never read the book. It was inspired by the book, not based on it. However, if you watch the movie without having read the book, maybe you’ll be able to enjoy it. And I certainly hope you do because it has a brilliantly important message and everyone should hear Melody’s story.
If the book was an emotional rollercoaster, the movie would be the teacups ride. The book filled me with adrenaline and made me scream, laugh, and cry, but the movie just made me want to throw up.
