The Teen Book Club

My book club pick for August 2018 was Wendelin Van Draanen’s 2001 novel Flipped. As it was the long weekend I had the chance to sit down and rewatch the film version. I had seen the film back in 2011, so it was interesting to revisit it after reading the book.

The film adaption of Flipped was released in 2010. It was directed by Rob Reiner (The Princess Bride, When Harry Meet Sally, A Few Good Men, Misery). Reiner also co-wrote the script with Andrew Scheinman.

The film opens in the summer of 1957 when seven-year-old Bryce Loski (Ryan Ketzner) and his family moving in across the street from Juli Baker (Morgan Lily, also young Raven in X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past).

Young Bryce (Ryan Ketzner) and Young Juli (Morgan Lily)

Juli knows that Bryce will be her first kiss, but Bryce isn’t so sure and does his best to avoid Juli.

Madeline Carroll and Callan McAuliffe play Juli and Bryce as the film moves to 1961 and follows them through their sixth to eighth grades.

Juli and Bryce views of each other begin to change. Bryce begins to look at Juli in a different way and realises she is not what he initially thought. Unfortunately for Bryce Juli’s view is also changing – she is beginning to realise that Bryce is not the boy she thought he was.

Juli (Madeline Caroll)

Bryce (Callan McAuliffe)

As I mentioned Reiner changed Van Draanen’s contemporary setting to the early 1960s, a few years later than his earlier adolescent themed work Stand by Me, which was set in 1959. It possible that Reiner chose to change the time period as that was when he grew up. The nostalgic feel of small town America in the 1960s suits the story.

One of the key features of the novel is its he-said-she-said narrative with Bryce and Julie alternating chapters each giving their perspective. I pointed out in my review of the book that this can be risky for an author to do because it can slow down the pace of the novel with characters retelling the same points of plot. Van Draanen did a good job at offering two different perspectives in an entertaining and often amusing way.

Reiner kept with dual perspective with Carroll and McAuliffe each providing voice over for their characters perspectives. This received some criticism from critics that argued the scenes weren’t different enough to justify showing the same scenes from opposing points of view. I would have to agree with this assessment.

The adult cast was made up of a group of experienced actors. Penelope Ann Miller and Aidan Quinn as Juli’s parents, Rebecca De Mornay and Anthony Edwards as Bryce’s parents. The late John Mahoney portrayed Bryce’s grandfather and Kevin Weisman plays Juli’s intellectually disabled uncle.

Flipped doesn’t have the same magic as Reiner’s classic film Stand by Me, but it is still a sweet movie and is faithful to the spirit of the book.