To All the Boys I've Loved Before: The Biggest Changes From Book to Picture

Though it's simply been out for a calendar week, Netflix'south original movie To All the Boys I've Loved Before has already been all-powerful an instant rom-com archetype. With the winning, charming teen characters of a John Hughes movie, an electric chemistry between the leads, and a modern sensibility, it is easily the all-time loftier-schoolhouse movie of the year — maybe of the decade. The motion-picture show's success, however should come as no surprise to any fan of Jenny Han'due south book of the same proper noun, and its subsequent sequels.

Spoilers for To All the Boys I've Loved Earlier below.

The movie is a fairly true-blue adaptation of the acknowledged immature-adult novel, including the character of Lara Jean, the Asian-American loftier-schoolhouse inferior at the middle of the story — who some producers wanted to whitewash. All the major plot points are the same, and the characters are by and large as they appear in the book. The things that did change are, for the well-nigh part, to be expected: Lara Jean's younger sister is aged up from ix years old to xi years onetime (older child actors are easier to cast), some plotlines are condensed for fourth dimension, and one absolutely perfect engagement to an estate sale is cut for reasons that are inexplicable to this antique-loving grown-adult female writer. Seriously, who doesn't want to lookout a high-school couple hang out in an elderly person'southward home, haggling for trinkets?

Amazing dates aside, here were the biggest changes from book to film.

The mystery surrounding the messages getting sent
In order to become over her intense crushes, Lara Jean Covey has a addiction of writing embarrassingly sincere love letters to the objects of her affection. Though she has every intention of keeping these private, for some bizarre reason she stores each letter in fully addressed envelopes. The envelopes are kept in a blueish hatbox her late mother left her.

In the book, Lara Jean'southward dad goes on a cleaning spree in which he rounds up a bunch of quondam stuff and gives it away to a charity. And then when her hatbox goes missing and Lara Jean'southward crushes start approaching her with the honey letters, she assumes her letters were sent out past whoever bought the box at Goodwill. The reader suspects otherwise; there are several characters who might accept had motivations for sending the letters. Was it her best friend, Chris, a gratuitous-spirit rebel who lives for male child drama? Her older sister Margo, a mother-hen type who wants to give her shy little sister a push out of the nest?

In the movie, as Lara Jean naps in one of the earliest scenes, her mischievous trivial sister, Kitty, can be seen creeping into her big sister's room to steal the hatbox. While Kitty had a clear motivation in the book — she was mad at Lara Jean for embarrassing her in front of their dreamy neighbour — in the movie she's more of a sassy shit-stirrer.

Josh doesn't buss Lara Jean
In the movie, as is true in the book, there would be no story without Josh, the sugariness and considerate male child-next-door who Lara Jean — and her whole family — admittedly adores. Of course Lara Jean wrote him one of her messages. Though it'due south articulate how close Lara Jean and Josh were before the letter, he's not in the movie much. He mostly takes a back seat once Peter and Lara Jean start false dating. But in the book he makes frequent appearances. He even confesses to having similar feelings about Lara Jean and kisses her — a development that, understandably, upsets his ex-girlfriend — and 50.J.'southward sister — Margo.

Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky's beginning buss
Peter Kavinsky, the high school'southward hottest and virtually pop lacrosse-playing dreamboat, is the guy Lara Jean has the most history with too Josh. Dorsum in center school, Lara Jean was friends with Peter and Genevieve, the daughter Peter would get on to date for several years. He was also Lara Jean's starting time kiss — a bespeak of contention that collection a wedge between her and Genevieve. The smooch sparked the flame of Lara Jean'southward vanquish on him.

In the movie, this kiss was the upshot of a basement party game. Like many middle schoolers before them, the fate of their lips was sealed past a spinning 7 Upwards bottle. Information technology makes Genevieve's jealousy of this quick peck actress ridiculous — if she didn't want to see Peter Kavinsky'due south luscious, perfect lips kissing other girls, then, as the group's queen bee, she should have dictated that the co-ed crew played a unlike risqué game like Truth or Dare. Duh.

In the book though, the story behind this kiss is our first indication that Lara Jean'due south crush on Peter might have been common, even before they became simulated girlfriend and boyfriend. The two of them were the last kids waiting to be picked up at a friend'due south business firm. They were sitting close to each other when Peter told Lara Jean that she smelled nice. That's when, out of the blue, he landed 1 right on her lips.

The "relationship" contract
The faux relationship contract Lara Jean and Peter typhoon together is more often than not the same, except in the book it is Peter who suggests that, in lieu of kissing and other PDA, he's allowed to put a mitt in Lara Jean's back pocket (that perv). He also writes a dominion that she won't make him watch rom-coms, and she writes a rule that he won't accept her to see action movies. Instead, in the motion-picture show, the contract dictates that Peter will lookout man certified rom-com Xvi Candles and Lara Jean will watch Fight Gild.

Lara Jean's dad is absurd
Maybe not "cool" per se, but definitely the kind of film dad teens wish they had. In the volume, Lara Jean's dad is more of a busy, squeamish guy. He normally simply appears long enough to brand sure anybody is fed. He is on the verge of tears when he tries to give Lara Jean a safe-sexual practice talk, and tells her he thinks she should wait. Not in the movie though! John Corbett as Dr. Covey is all about butting into his daughter'southward conversations with a drinking glass of white wine in hand to wax poetically nigh the ability of teen love. He's rocking the '80s tunes on the diner'southward jukebox. He even hands Lara Jean a fistful of condoms before she goes away on a school-supervised overnight trip.

The ending borrows from the outset of the second volume
In both the volume and the movie, a rumor starts floating around that Lara Jean and Peter had sex while on the overnight school ski trip. Another plotline, involving a leaked "sextape" (actually only the two lovebirds making out in a hot tub) gets shoehorned into the picture version, though this drama doesn't happen in the book serial until early in the sequel P.S. I Nevertheless Love Yous. This choice makes sense — information technology conspicuously heightens the stakes for Lara Jean, whose reputation could be damaged past the video beyond what the mean girls are saying about her. Nigh college admission offices aren't thrilled by the possibility of underage porn.

The first volume as well ends on a bewilderment, with Lara Jean making a resolution to tell Peter how she really feels. Only a character telling herself she should be brave is a bit anticlimactic for a rom-com. To give the movie that big, heart-swelling, cue-the-music conclusion, the movie skipped ahead to the showtime of P.Southward. I Still Love You, with Lara Jean giving Peter a note almost her existent feelings. Though the scene goes down slightly differently in the book (it takes place at his business firm on New Year'southward Day, not the lacrosse field), it'southward definitely like.

And the motion picture even so left room for a sequel with a bewilderment of its own: John Ambrose, Lara Jean'south shell from Model U.N., makes his outset appearance merely before the credits, and he definitely has a part to play in P.South. I Withal Dearest Yous. Let'due south only see how that dear triangle holds up next to cyberspace fave Peter Kavinsky.

Volume to Movie Changes in To All the Boys I've Loved Before