The Perfect Cut
Author: Julie Burtinshaw | Flyer by: Aamer Seth
Overview
The Perfect Cut, the movie I had chosen and the book that my author, Don Aker wrote had the theme: The reaction over a loved one’s death. In The Perfect Cut, The main character of the story, Bryan, lost his sister when she committed suicide. Bryan has the reaction of drinking alcohol, smoking and shutting everyone out of his life such as his mother father and his now ex-girlfriend. The movie that I chose was P.S. I love you and when Holly’s husband, Gerry dies she had shut everyone out of her life as well. Don Aker wrote a White pine award winning book “The Fifth Rule” and when a man named Reef has to go back to Halifax for his mentor’s funeral. He is wanting to be left alone and leave Halifax due to the fact that his fondest memories of him and his mentor were in Halifax. A lot of the character had some of the same reaction, but all different outcomes. The climax of the book was Bryan trying to commit suicide and once he was okay he let people in his life and was back to normal. When Holly let her family celebrate her birthday with her, she receive a letter that was written by her husband before he died and sent Holly onto a journey to rebuild her life. The Perfect Cut and P.S. I love you show that when someone dies, you do not only lose them, but you can also lose other people you may care about in your life.
Does the source merely entertain? No, the source does not merely entertain. The story of the book makes the reader curious on what is going to happen next. It makes the reader curious on why some of the other characters act the way they do and also helps the reader understand why, but there are many other aspects to the story.
Does the source entertain as well as provide valuable information? Yes this source does entertains as well as provide valuable information. The story of the book keeps the audience wondering on what Bryan is going to do next. The theme of the book can also be helpful in real life scenarios. This book teaches that others have different reactions and can be helped in different ways.
Does the source entertain, inform and provide a new insight and perspective? Yes the source does entertain, inform, but it does not provide a new insight and perspective. The theme of the book is “the reaction to the death of a loved one”. This was only written from the perspective of Bryan Bianchi who lost his sister. The other characters such as Bryan’s mother and father perspective was not expressed as much as Bryan.
Novel: The Perfect Cut
After a car accident, Bryan Bianchi sister, Michelle Bianchi has died. After around a year, Bryan has picked up some bad habits as ways to deal with the pain of losing his sister. He has started to cut himself, drink alcohol and smoke both tobacco and marijuana. His depression has caused him to not talk to anyone including his parents and his now ex-girlfriend Jesse. His father, Mike Bianchi is a doctor and wishes that Bryan would have died instead of Michelle. His mother, Isabelle Bianchi is an interior decorator who has emotional breakdowns on a regular bases. Bryan has a therapist, Dr.Spahic who has been helping Bryan with some of his problems. One day Bryan decides to try to kill himself since he thought that no one would care if he were to die so he overdosed on his anti-depressions and laid back in bed ready to die. He is found by his mother and was rushed to the hospital. Dr. Spahic talks to his parents and tells them that he had been drinking and smoking. This leads to Bryan’s father blaming Isabelle for not knowing that he was drinking and smoking. When Dr. Spahic asks them to make weekly interviews with her, Isabelle agrees, but his Mike does not and then went for a sabbatical in Asia. When Bryan wakes up he is told to stay in the hospital for a while in order to make sure that he does not try to kill himself again. A month later, Bryan is released and meets Jesse while in the supermarket. They started to spend more time together. Bryan then tells Jesse about how Michelle left a note in the handle of her guitar for Bryan to read the night she died. It explained that Michelle committed suicide due to the fact that Mike and Isabelle kept on fighting and the only person she regrets leaving is Bryan. Bryan comes to the conclusion that no one cares about him. Except for a few people. The ones that count.
The Perfect Cut: Characters and Settings
Bryan Bianchi: After his sister commits suicide, Bryan has started to cut himself, drink alcohol and smoke. On a regular basis, he is depressed due to his father and how he treats him, but he is the happiest when he is playing the guitar since it brings back memories of him and his sister. When he tries to kill himself, but survives he is stuck in a hospital for a month which keeps him away from cutting, drinking and smoking. After he is released from the hospital he reads a letter that was left behind from his sister, he came to the conclusion that the few people that care are the ones that count.
Michelle Bianchi: A teenage girl who commit suicide in a car crash. According to the note that she left Bryan in the handle of her guitar, she will be missing only Bryan and will not miss anyone else including her parents due to the fact that she committed suicide since they were the reason why she was committing suicide. She made her death look like a car accident when she was trying to kill herself on purpose.
Mike Bianchi: Father of both Bryan and Michelle Bianchi and husband of Isabelle Bianchi. He preferred Michelle over Bryan since she was not afraid to fight back. When Michelle died, he said that he wished that it had been Bryan who died. He blames everyone for any problem that happens and believes nothing is his fault. After Bryan tried to kill himself, he went to Asia for a sabbatical and did not return.
Isabelle Bianchi: Mother of both Bryan and Michelle and wife of Mike Bianchi. Isabelle is very emotional and tries to make her family forget about Michelle and be happy again. She goes for alcohol every time she has an argument with Mike even though she tries her very best to avoid all arguments that may come her way.
Jessie: Bryan's Ex-girlfriend. She prefers to be called Jess. Bryan and she broke up the night that Michelle died because she told Bryan that if she is thinking about committing suicide then she needs help and Bryan refused causing a termination of the relationship. After Bryan came back from the hospital, they started to go a regular walks and became good friends.
Dr. Spahic: Bryan's fourth psychiatrist that he sees once a week, every week. She knows how to get information out of Bryan unlike the other three that he has had in the past. When Bryan was in the hospital after trying to commit suicide, she was with him every day helping him as well as helping other patients that were in the hospital by holding a support group.
Chris: Bryan's friend that he met downtown. Chris ran away from Toronto because of his abusive father. He cuts, drink alcohol and does drugs same as Bryan. He tried to kill himself as well, but was saved as well.
Setting: Most of the book was in the Bianchi house, but to be more specific, in Bryan's room. The dining room was mentioned a few times in the book. Bryan's meetings with Dr. Spahic took place in Dr. Spahic's house. Bryan and Chris would meet each other downtown from where Bryan lived. A small portion of the book took place in the hospital after Bryan tried to kill himself. He had to stay at the hospital for the doctors to make sure that he does not try to kill himself again.
P.S. I Love You
The movie that I have chosen that has the same theme as The Perfect Cut is the romance movie P.S. I love you. After Holly Keneddy lost her husband, she is wanting to be left alone from everyone else including her family. When it is her birthday, she decides to let her family celebrate with her. During her birthday she recieves a letter that was written by her husband before he died in anticipation of her being depressed. The letters were left for her in order to rebuild her life
The theme of the movie and the book is the reaction of a loved ones death. Both Bryan and Holly had the same reaction of not wanting anyone else to be with them and wanting to be left alone. They also had different reaction such as bryan starting to do drugs which Holly did not do.
Don Aker | Website
Don Aker is an author and former teacher. He is a white pine winning author for his book “The Fifth Rule” which share that same theme as “The Perfect Cut” and the movie “P.S. I love you.” His inspiration for writing his books is his former life as a teacher. He says that his books are meant to address the problems his students were having. Today he continues to write and is a speaker at school for students.
Don Aker’s website provides information about his life as an author and former teacher, but has no information about his future vision. All of his awards and book were found with ease, but based on what we know, we can assume that he is continuing to write books and speaking to student at various schools.
Email: mail@donaker.com
Website: http://www.donaker.com/