Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Let me say up front I did not know this was a book and have not read the book. I can only evaluate the movie. I wish movie summaries would be more honest about the type of movie you are about to watch. I guess I should have read the reviews first. I am not sorry I watched this movie, but it has made me really sad. The concept that the worth of a person can be replaced by money and new experiences is disturbing. This movie uses the trappings of love and hope to tell us that life is not worth living if it does not measure up to an arbitrary standard. Who sets the standard? When do we start giving up because we hate our job--or are too short? When I think of all the people struggling in the world today and then look at this character who, with every economic advantage, could only see what he didn't have I am sickened. When did the struggle stop being worth it? Our lives are not measured by how many recreational sports we can master, but how we love and treat one another. The main character took the love of that girl and threw it away because she was less important than him. In reality, he still didn't "see" her; he used her. When did great love stop being about self-sacrifice--dying to self for the one you love--and start being about getting everything you can from the people around you and then checking out when life isn't as fulfilling as you think it should be? This is a visually beautiful movie and well acted, but it is all window dressing--ironically lovingly created--for a story meant to tell us each of us has no innate value as a person. That there is no worth in becoming more or bigger than what we think we are. We are surrounded by any entertainment we could want but our imaginations have become so small. Struggle and pain are supposed to show us the strength we didn't know we had--make us greater than we ever imagined we could be. Money and power don't buy that, adversity does. I think most of us still know this instinctively but it really is easier to just give up. And when they make it look like heaven on earth why not? The world is full of heroes because they refused to give up. I am sorry there are movies like this out there selling humanity out for a chance to sit at a cafe in Paris and buy expensive perfume in a quirky outfit. Despite Lou's smile in the end don't you think she would rather have experienced Paris with Will? Have grown into a person she didn't know she had in her with him--watching him grow maybe because of her? The peace on her face at the end was a joke and insulting to anyone who has ever loved someone or been loved.