Sumith Prasad
Apple TV+’s teen romance film ‘The Sky is Everywhere’ centers around the life of Lennie Walker, who navigates her life through the loneliness and grief she suffers from due to the death of her elder sister Bailey. The film progresses through Lennie and Joe’s heartening relationship, which is troubled by Lennie’s heart-rending grief and other complications that arise in her life. As the film succeeds to affect the viewers extremely with its moving portrayal of Lennie’s loss and the hope Joe brings to her life, one must be wondering whether the characters and their stories have a real-life origin. Let’s find out!
Is The Sky is Everywhere Based on a True Story?
No, ‘The Sky is Everywhere’ is not based on a true story. The film is written by Jandy Nelson, based on her eponymous novel. Jandy was inspired by the loss of her mother to write a novel about the experience of grief, exploring the nuances and cataclysmic effects of such a loss. The writer then conceived the characters of Lennie and Joe to place the element of grief in a romantic tale and depict a love story that alternates between joy and sorrow that envelop human life. Through the death of Bailey in the novel, Jandy succeeded in imparting the intricacies of grief in Lennie.
Even though Lennie’s moving tale is fictional, Jandy was inspired by several real-life elements to conceive the fictitious narrative. Along with the loss of her mother, the writer’s close relationship with her brothers acts as a foundation of Lennie and Bailey’s togetherness. Jandy also drew parallels from her own friends, who became sister figures for her, while characterizing Lennie and Bailey. According to Jandy, the characters of her novels are a combination of several people and their characteristics, including herself. Although the characters of the book and the film are fictional, the sense of reality they emanate isn’t just accidental.
Since the novel is adapted for the screen by the writer Jandy Nelson itself, the emotional strength of the novel is transferred to the screenplay impeccably. “I love how Jandy’s script holds comedy alongside tragedy, how she lets us be inside of the playful awkwardness and thrill of first love alongside the raw reality of grief. And she lets us inside of Lennie’s wild imagination,” director Josephine Decker said to EW. “I always wanted to make a film where you experience every emotion — where you laugh and cry, find tension and release, feel sexy, feel scared. And I adore magical realism,” Decker said about the motivation behind making the film.
Decker brilliantly translated the soul of Jandy’s novel into the medium of cinema. The film depicts the inner world of Lennie with a touch of magical realism to enhance the imagery Jandy created in the novel. The director said, “Those poetry sections that take place inside Lennie’s mind, I think those magical moments make this project so unique. Plus, I am such a classical music dork and so getting to make a movie about teenagers who are obsessed with Bach was just juicy and very affirming!”
“I hope our audiences really see themselves in the film and can relate to Lennie and Joe and Toby and their passions and frustrations and innocences and transgressions and dreams,” Decker added to EW. Josephine Decker’s ‘The Sky is Everywhere’ is a cinematic achievement and an incredible adaptation. The film expands the scope of the novel through the medium of cinema and affects the viewers with fictional-yet-realistic characters and their emotional sagas.
Read More: Where Was The Sky is Everywhere Filmed?
