The Sky Is Everywhere

This sweet, sentimental teen drama explores how the joy of first love can be tied to the intensity of overwhelming grief. Kaufman is believably sad, confused, and emotionally volatile as Lennie, who feels utterly alone without her vibrant sister. The story, adapted by author Nelson, solidly sets up how the sisters were closer than most siblings because they were orphans who shared a room, dreams of attending Juilliard together (Bailey for drama, Lennie for music), and the experience of being raised by their bohemian grandmother and uncle. A hiccup of the adaptation, directed by Josephine Decker, is that the quick love connection developed in the book feels startlingly fast on-screen, making Lennie and Joe's relationship an even more overt "instalove" version than that of their book counterparts. Luckily, Kaufman and Colimon have decent chemistry, but this isn't a typical teen love story. Like the book, The Sky Is Everywhere is as much about finding a way to survive sorrow as it is about finding love when you least expect it.

Fans of the book will recognize some of Lennie's most beautiful, quotable lines, even if they're expressed in a different context here (in the book, nearly all of her philosophical thoughts were written, not spoken). Memorable lines like "my sister will die over and over again for the rest of my life," "I wish my shadow would get up and walk beside me," and "if you're someone who knows the worst thing can happen at any time, aren't you also someone who knows the best thing can happen at any time too?" all made the script, but other aspects of the book (like Uncle Big's many marriages, Lennie and Bailey's mom's circumstances, and the depth of Lennie's obsession with Joe's long eyelashes) got cut. The film friendship between Lennie and Sarah (Ji-young Yoo) is tender but not as deeply explored in the film as it was in the novel. The magical realism elements (mostly involving Joe and Lennie) vary from lovely to contrived, depending on the scene. Bottom line? While not as iconic as the various John Green or David Levithan adaptations, The Sky Is Everywhere captures the essence of the book well enough.