The lead character wrote a terrible book on purpose and the writer of this movie did as well, unwittingly. A movie about uprooting stereotypes is full of them. Have no idea how it has received so much praise. The pacing was off too. Every scene moved us along so fast. It really kinda fits into the after school special realm. Perhaps it was the directing that didn't work. But the one thing that really stuck out was the language ascribed to poor blacks. "Heys man you donts gots to be that way" was what he the author wrote for a black character in his book. That is 1930's talk. And the white dialogue was just as bad in the actual movie. Just bad all around.