Read It and Weep

Plot

Read It and Weep begins with freshman Jameson "Jamie" Bartlett (Kay Panabaker), who has three best friends named Connor (who has a crush on her) (Jason Dolley), Lindsay (Marquise Brown), and Harmony (Alexandra Krosney), a brother named Lenny Bartlett (Nick Whitaker) and a very mean enemy named Sawyer Sullivan (Allison Scagliotti) (who she calls "Myrna" in her journal and the novel), whose boyfriend Marco is the object of Jamie's affection. She also owns a tablet PC which she writes in every day. In that journal she writes about a character named "Isabella," or "Is" (Danielle Panabaker), a popular girl with incredible powers based loosely on herself. Jamie uses her tablet PC as her own little universe, where she tells about different people, and stories, but in actuality is her own life, just a little more imaginative.

As an English assignment, she has to write an essay of her choice. Her printer dies and Lenny refuses to let her use his. Lindsay offers to print the essay if Jamie emails it to her, but she accidentally sends her the journal. After Lindsay turns the journal in for the English assignment, it wins a writing contest. Jamie's book attracts a lot of publicity and eventually becomes a bestseller. She appears at many book signings, reality TV shows, is often interviewed, and meets stars whom she has always wanted to meet. Soon, success gets the better of Jamie; she becomes increasingly materialistic and critical of the world around her, quitting her job at her father's pizza place, ridiculing her brother's guitar playing, and favoring fame over her friends. Her newfound popularity is dashed when she inadvertently reveals on a television interview that the antagonist of her novel is based on Sawyer and all of her other life dramas.

As Jamie's classmates learn that the book was based on Jamie's negative feelings toward her school, she wishes to restore her relationships but her friends are unwilling to trust her again. Her friends begin to reject and avoid her. To make up for her mistakes, she apologizes to her brother, Lenny, encouraging him to take up his guitar playing once more, despite what she'd said. Jamie overhears her parents' conversation about having to close down the pizza parlor, and Jamie feels guilty.

As she is getting ready for the school dance, Jamie confronts Is, a figment of her imagination who tries to make Jamie like she is and acts as the main antagonist of the movie (next to Sawyer/Myrna), and tells her to stop. She then goes to the dance, where she tries to apologize to everyone. They do not accept her apology at first, but gradually do after learning the book was really Jamie's personal journal and that she never meant for it to be published. Jamie finds Connor just as he is leaving. She asks for his forgiveness and they kiss. They walk back into the dance, where Lenny performs a song ("I Will Be Around") dedicated to Jamie.

After the dance, which was ocean-themed, Jamie invites everyone to eat at her parents' pizza parlor. When Lenny rushes into the kitchen to help cook the pizza, his jacket, which was covered in seaweed from the dance, accidentally lands on some of the pizzas, covering them in seaweed. When the pizza is delivered to the customers, they love it, and Jamie's father finally figures out the secret of how to save their business, ending the film on a happy note.

Cast

Production

The movie was based on the book How My Private, Personal Journal Became a Bestseller. Julia DeVillers, the author of the book from which the movie was made, has a cameo in a pizza parlor scene. There are a number of differences between the book and the film.

Read It and Weep was filmed at Murray High School and Downtown Salt Lake City. Murray High School was also the set of: Take Down (1978), the auditorium scene of High School Musical (2006), Minutemen (2008) and High School Musical: Get in the Picture (2008).