“It never ended. Even though she’d thought she’d covered her heart with a permanent porcelain shell, he still found a way to chip at it.”

― Jojo Moyes, The Last Letter from Your Lover

You know me, I love books that are coming into life. Just like those Nicholas Sparks novels, that invaded my entire university-age hopeful mind and those Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte books that made me hope for something extraordinaire or those written by Shakespeare and F. Scottgerald that made me fall in love with literature. Yes, all those kinds you see in the classic bookshelf in the library or in the bookstore. I remember, when I was in college, I spend most of my time lingering around second hand books store, trying to fish a good catch of classical novels. My first ones were Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, Great Gatsby and Romeo & Juliet.

I remember who I was all excited to go home after purchasing a half-priced old book that was still in good condition. I remember how I spend sleepless nights not for reviewing but for reading such books. I became hopeful that someday, these books will come to life coz I swear, I keep dreaming of them. Well, there are few versions of film adaptations but it wasn’t played on the cinematic type that I wanted so when they finally released such movies in the year where technology has better results than black and white, yes, I was so happy.

This month marks one of the unapologetically nice books I’ve read, being released as a movie. Yes, Netflix did it again! The Title of the book is The last letter from your lover by Jojo Moyes, the same writer for Me Before You which also became a movie hit few years back. If you have read the book itself, you’ll know that this movie is set in the 1960s and in the present day. It’s a story about two pairs of couples;

One was challenged by time and pressure, and the other is by fate and reciprocation. The story literally circled around all of them only to find out that love has no time nor end.

Played by Shailene Woodley as Jennifer Sterling, a rich married lady, and Callum Turner as Anthony O’Hare, a journalist who tended to write a story about Jennifer’s husband but later on became involved with each other in a so-called affair. The two have written letters back and forth during the 60s which were then discovered by Ellie Haworth played by Felicity Jones, who became close because of the Archive guy, Rory played by Nabhaan Rizwan, who helped her do all the research and were able to pin point the mystery of the last letter of Anthony to Jennifer which apparently created the whole story point.

I won’t spoil much but, yes the story is pretty interesting and I love the 1960s vibes. Like, Shailene Woodley is like a girl cropped out of 1960s films. I love her style and she definitely can pull off a 1960s vibe. She is like a 1960s Barbie doll. I guess the love for retro in my heart is there that’s why I even loved the book itself and more when the movie was released.

Let’s talk about the outcome, like in the book literally, being in an affair, if you’re married is such a guilt that you cannot decide or think only about your feelings. If you’re involved, you have to think about three feelings, you, your legal partner and your other partner. Who makes you happy? Who gives you what you want? Of course, after reading the book, I realized that couples break up or getting cold with each other because one cannot give their full attention or one can be comfortable in the routine that they have not knowing it’s already giving some hole in the relationship.

In Ellie and Rory’s story, it is timed in the moments where one night stand is just a one night stand…literally and if the other party didn’t text you after the first date, that means either he/she doesn’t want you or he/she moved on the next prospect. Right? I can’t blame Ellie for being so scared to reciprocate whatever Rory is giving her coz she was used to being alone or being not in a relationship while still getting her feminine needs. But later on, there’s no such thing as ignorance when it comes to love. You can never ignore your feelings coz it will haunt you. Yes.

The movie is actually a perfect representation of the novel, which i find really satisfying, after all, Jojo Moyes’ film adaptation never gets old just like Nicholas’ The Notebook. I could actually compare this into some of the NS film adaptations especially the old letter vibes. Yes, Nicholas loves flashbacks, which definitely helped recreate two love stories from a different era but meeting them halfway, making it a story that tangles the four often, making it possible for them to meet.

I guess we all deserve to have live action films of those really good books that we have read. I mean that’s like making a bookworm’s imagination become real.

All in all I will give this a 92% wonderroanne rating coz this movie never disappoints so if I were you, watch it and it is now available in Netflix.