Looking for Alibrandi

However, trying to pack all these different things into a 102-minute film doesn’t leave much space for development in any of the different storylines and certainly doesn’t leave for any kind of extreme character development. The movie has it all: relationships, complications, cultural issues, humour and tragedy. It really does show in the final product, that they had to cram to even get this much. The main tragedy in the book is rushed and completely un-moving in the film, however it is almost surprising that they even included it, considering all the important and necessary scenes that they had already left out of the movie.

The movie jumps back and forth, from cultural issues to family, relationships friendships and everything in between. It often leaves you pondering the last scene you watched, confused about what you are watching now, wondering if it’s possible that the projector somehow skipped an important quote somewhere or even skipped an entire scene, when in actual fact it is just the flawed and rough direction at its worst. It has been proven in some cases that indeed you can make a movie better by adding special effects and real facial expressions, but in most cases, and definitely in this one, you can’t do much better than a book. her last year at a posh, all girls Catholic school.

Looking for Alibrandi raises the age-old question of whether it is really possible to make a movie that is better than its book.

Whilst the movie is much better quality than most Australian films today, it still doesn’t come anywhere near to conveying the real and moving emotions that are felt in the book. Whilst the book had a mostly equal quantity of family problems and school issues, the movie skims over the cultural side of things, but even so, still leaves something lacking on the other side.