C.D. Payne’s novel took over 16 years to make it to the big screen. Even with all that time, the film’s creators were unable to capture the true essence of the novel. The film adaptation of Youth in Revolt chopped huge chunks out of a brilliantly written book in favor of a more precise storyline.

 
The novel is comprised of the journals of a 14-year-old boy named Nick Twisp, played by a 21-year-old Michael Cera in the film, who avidly desires to shed all aspects of his youth. The reader is taken along as Twisp creates havoc and chaos to win the girl of his dreams, Sheeni Saunders, played by Portia Doubleday in the film.

 
Right from the very beginning, the film took “artistic liberty” and changed Twisp’s age to 16 to make his actions less shocking. Undoubtedbly, if viewers saw a 14-year-old attempting the same schemes as the film’s 16-year-old version of Twisp, there would have been quite the handful of disgruntled movie-goers.

It was not the age change alone that caused me to shake my head in disappointment by the time the end credits rolled. The movie seemed to resemble a store after the rush of Black Friday—void of content and substance with very few things left on the shelves. It was as if the film’s creators took the novel and proceeded to rip countless pages of plot from it, leaving nothing but a shell of the story to be made into the film.

The basic major plot points were there, yet what made the book so unique in the first place was thrown into the garbage during the script writing process. For example, Twisp’s female alter-ego Carlotta had a dominate roll in the novel, but in the film she had less than a five minute appearance.

Although the film was unable to capture the true magic of Payne’s novel, Twisp’s bad-boy side Francois, played by a bearded Cera, could not have been portrayed better. Francois was literally brought to life, which gave the film another dimension that the book lacked.

Cera captured Twisp’s unique personality with ease. Twisp’s artfully crafted sentences almost seemed to come directly from the novel and out of Cera’s mouth dripping with the bitter sarcasm of the book. Without Cera, the film would not have stood a chance.

In the end, Youth in Revolt still somewhat managed to do Payne’s novel justice. The well-selected cast along with Cera’s performance clearly saved the movie from following the path of many book inspired films.

Some closing advice to anyone intrigued by Youth in Revolt: just read the book.