After reading the book I got relatively excited about the film however from the looks of the trailers I knew they had changed a lot. Normally, I don’t like to compare the film exactly to the book, however, this is an exception – they changed everything!
The DUFF stands for ‘Designated Ugly Fat Friend’ which for Bianca is what she is labeled as in High School! The story follows Bianca, a young woman as she faces the struggles of high school, family, and labels! With the help from the handsome and popular boy Wesley, Bianca hopes she can un-duff herself and win over the boy of her dreams.
I don’t know what happened to the film as it is nothing like the book, yes it does portray the message of not listening to labels but it missed out so many more important ones. I can understand why they didn’t include the sex scenes as it is a teen book and no one really wants to go and see that in the cinema (unless you want to go and watch ’fifty shades of grey!) but there was so much more stuff they missed.
I was also disappointed that Bianca’s friends Jess and Casey weren’t included as much as they were in the book as their role in the book is to support Bianca and to portray the theme of friendship. Another thing they changed was Toby Tucker; he wasn’t kind or romantic but just a total arse in the film which I really disliked. His relationship in the book is so much nicer and ends on a happier note than in the film!
The addition of the ‘mean girl’ Madison Morgan played by Bella Thorne did make it more cliche but it did suit the theme of the film which was the struggles of high school. I thought Mae Whitman who played Bianca was good and in my eyes was the perfect Bianca! Robbie Amell, I thought again was the perfect Wesley as he was sarcastic, handsome as well as being kind and caring. The on-screen relationship between Wesley and Bianca, in my opinion, worked really well as there was some banter and laughs between them which is what I also enjoyed from the book!
However, apart from a lot of the alterations, I thought the film did a good job for what it was; a cheesy girly Friday night film! There were some funny moments but there were also a lot of awkward and ‘WTF’ moments too (if you’ve watched it then you probably know what I mean!) which did affect my overall opinion.
Overall, I give this film 2/5 stars as it wasn’t the best ‘chick flick’ i’d seen but it was bearable. It had some laughs and portrayed some important messages. If you are thinking of going and think it would be exactly like the book, I recommend you think again! If you are interested in reading the book please do check out our review on the book here!
Have you seen the film? What is your opinion? Please feel free to leave a comment down below!
A Fangirl's Opinion 
I still have to read the book, but I’m looking forward to both it and the movie 🙂
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