The time it was about All the Bright Places {2}

Posted February 28, 2020 by Stacee in Movies | 2 Comments

I don’t think it’s a secret that I’ve loved All the Bright Places since the moment I found the arc in my greedy hands. I’ve fangirled over Jennifer Niven a million and one times and will likely continue to do so.

It goes without saying that when I saw Jennifer post a contest to win tickets for the LA premiere of the movie, I had to try. {Huge thanks to Michelle for everything she did while I was driving us up to Disneyland.} And on Saturday afternoon, I got the email from Netflix stating that I was a winner of two tickets.

Before we get to the premiere mini-recap, let’s check out the movie:

Title: All the Bright Places
Directed by: Brett Haley
Screenplay by: Jennifer Niven and Liz Hannah
Running Time: 1h 48m
Release Date: February 28, 2020
Platform: Netflix

Based on the internationally bestselling novel by Jennifer Niven, All The Bright Places tells the story of Violet Markey (Elle Fanning) and Theodore Finch (Justice Smith), who meet and change each other’s lives forever. As they struggle with the emotional and physical scars of their past, they come together, discovering that even the smallest places and moments can mean something. This compelling drama provides a refreshing and human take on the experience of mental illness, its impact on relationships, as well as the beauty and lasting impact of young love.

Cast: Elle Fanning, Justice Smith, Alexandra Shipp, Kelli O’Hara, Lamar Johnson, Virginia Gardner, Felix Mallard, Sofia Hasmik, with Keegan-Michael Key, and Luke Wilson

We got up to LA around 6:00 — the traffic gods were nice to us — and headed straight to the Arclight. There was a will call booth set up in one corner of the courtyard, a small corral of people, a press set up with black carpet, and then across the courtyard, two huge lines of people.

Someone from the event staff must have seen the looks on our faces and she came over to talk with us. She asked if we had tickets, explained how everything was going to happen, and then just let us stand between the talent arriving area and the black carpet.

We officially checked in at 7 and got our tickets. The movie was scheduled for 8p and we sort of just meandered around, watching people arrive. I’ll be honest, I recognized a few people, but couldn’t place them. We did see Lachlan Watson and Jaz Sinclair from CAOS, but they were ushered off to the carpet almost immediately and couldn’t/wouldn’t stop.

Elle Fanning was one of the first people from the cast to show up. She walked down the line of people waiting in the corral, signing and taking photos. When she went to move towards the black carpet, security had her and I wasn’t able to ask her to sign my arc of ATBP. So, we sort of followed her to the press area instead. The staff at Netflix told me that if I wanted to get into the press corral, I definitely could, but I didn’t want to try. Instead, I just zoomed in a bit.

As I watched Elle walk down the press line, I hovered at the end of it with my book. Security came over and told me that I couldn’t stand there because if other people noticed, they might do the same thing and he didn’t want a crowd of people by the door. He took me inside the lobby and told me that he was going to do his good deed for the day and that he would allow me to stay in the entrance area. Apparently, autographs and photos were not allowed once talent got into the lobby.

So, I stood there…

A few times, different people from the staff told me I needed to move, but my security friend kept coming over and telling them it was okay. Hubs called me because we got separated and I told him where I was, so he joined me inside. And we waited…and waited…and waited just a bit more.

Elle came into the lobby and was chatting with various people. I got a bit closer, but didn’t want to interrupt her. My security friend told me that I “better get in there” and when I told him I was trying to be polite, he chuckled and said if I kept waiting, it wasn’t going to happen.

Thankfully, she spun around to face me and I said hi and asked if she would sign my book. She said absolutely and after signing, she took a photo with Hubs.

Shortly after that, security came through and started telling people to head to the theatre. We headed over to the bar for two reasons: I wanted to see if I could get Justice to also sign the book {spoiler alert: I didn’t} and I needed to find Jennifer to squeeze her. We stood on the stairs of the bar and had some water and creeped on the lobby.

Finally, finally, finally, I saw Jennifer come in and I sort of ran up to her before security could say anything. I hugged her and said congratulations. Introductions were made between husbands and hers asked me if I wanted Jennifer to sign my book. We both laughed and I said no, that it was already signed. Jennifer told him that I had the largest collection of foreign editions of ATBP and that she helped me collect them. We chatted for about 30 more seconds before security was ushering us out of the lobby. I hugged her again and told her I was so happy to see her.

We headed upstairs to the theatre. They had shut down the rest of the section, so there weren’t any other people up there, except people who had tickets for the premiere. We went through a brief security check, showed our tickets, picked up complimentary popcorn and drinks and headed inside…but not before we stopped to take a photo of this:

I’m seriously impressed with whoever took the time to put all these post-it’s up…i hope they were name brand. This will make sense after seeing the movie.

{Now, a bit of honesty here…we went into the theatre fully intending to stay for a bit of the movie before leaving. When you get up at 4a for work, getting home from Hollywood after midnight doesn’t sound like the smartest idea. All of this depended on where our seats were located. We happened to be on the very end, so we settled in.}

First a person from Netflix briefly talked about the movie before handing it over to the director. He said a few words, thanking various cast and crew members, talking about how it was making the movie, and finally thanking Jennifer for writing the book.

And then the movie started…

Before I share my top 5 reasons to watch, let’s check out the trailer:

Top 5 Reasons to watch All the Bright Places:

the characters — I loved Violet and Finch from the moment they stepped onto the page
the actors — Elle and Justice did such a great job of bringing them to life
the soundtrack — I didn’t know any of the songs that played, but they were all so perfect in helping to set the mood
the screenplay — of course a movie can’t be an exact copy of the book, but Jennifer did an amazing job of capturing the important moments and scenes that needed to be in the story
the ending — I was straight up ready to sob in a room filled with strangers, but thankfully didn’t

We both loved this one so much. It was captivating and never once did I think about actually being able to get up and walk out of the movie to head home. So, yes…I am utterly exhausted while I type this up, but it was so so so worth it.

Huge thanks to Netflix for the tickets to the premiere and for providing the trailer and artwork. And if you want more details about the book, click here for an interview I did with Jennifer back in 2015 for All the Bright Places.