One essential scene that should be kept while adapting *It's
Kind of a Funny Story* by Ned Vizzini into a movie is the party scene at
Aaron's house. This scene is essential
to the novel because it shows how alone Craig feels even while in groups of
people and how this feeling of being alone is one of the reasons why Craig
contemplates suicide. Craig isn't having
fun even though everyone else is so he thinks something is wrong with him. This scene shows how teenagers should be
acting and what most teenagers his age are doing, and since Craig doesn't
follow what his friends do, he is contrasting these actions which makes him an
outcast.
Another essential scene that should be kept while adapting
this book into a movie is when Craig is accepted into Executive
Pre-Professional High School. This scene
is important because it shows how his hard work was rewarded and how he was so
excited to begin high school. However,
once he starts high school he finds out how hard all of his classes are and how
he is on the bottom of the totem pole compared to the geniuses in his classes. Craig realizes that his grades are awful
compared to the other kids in his classes and realizes that he isn't involved
in as many extracurricular activities as he should be so he begins to feel like
a failure. This feeling of not being
good enough contributes to his suicidal thoughts and makes his depression worse
which leads him to admit himself into a hospital.
Another scene that must be kept while adapting this book
into a movie is the scene when Craig attends drawing class in the
hospital. This scene is important
because Craig starts drawing maps again which is what he loved to do before
life got too hard for him and he got depressed.
This scene shows that Craig is on the right track to being happy again
and that he has hope for a better life since he is picking up old hobbies that he
really enjoyed and meant something to him.
One scene that the filmmakers can afford to cut out is the
scene when Craig walks into the lunchroom for the first time at the hospital
and Jennifer/Charles flirts with him. I
don't think this scene is important because there are already enough characters
that show how unique this hospital is, and they can afford to cut this
character out since he is released the next day. I didn't see his impact on the story.
Another scene that the filmmakers can afford to cut out is
when Aaron calls Craig at the hospital for the second time. Aaron is making fun of Craig for being in the
"loony bin" and I don't think that was necessary. Aaron doesn't understand that Craig has
clinical depression and continues to pick fun of him. The film won't suffer without this rude
scene.
