If you’re just a movie-watcher, you’re probably tired of hearing “The book was better,” from us readers. I’ve always said that cliche. I shut my mouth after watching “My Fault: London.”
In order to understand this movie, we have to go back a bit. “My Fault: London,” is the British version of the movie adaptation of Mercedes Ron’s “Culpables” trilogy.
The books were originally released on Wattpad, an online platform where anyone can write and post their stories. A lot of the time it’s cringy fanfiction or taboo stories, but it’s become a phenomenon for these books to become famous movies, such as “After” or “Fifty Shades of Grey.” “My Fault” was no exception.
Since it came from Wattpad, it’s really no surprise that the love story is as crazy as it is, but this one has to be the most unsettling and strange. The main protagonists are step-siblings — we have to remember that these books and movies were meant to give off a telenovela vibe — with drama and forbidden romance, as weird as this one is.
In the book, Noah’s mother marries William Leister, a rich man with a spoiled son, Nick. In all versions, it’s an enemy to lovers, “will they, won’t they” trope. The books were originally in Spanish, along with the original two movies.
The only real changes from the English and Spanish versions of the books were made for the sake of the readers’ and viewers’ culture. For example, in the English language version of the book, Noah moves from Toronto to Los Angeles, since it makes more sense from a language perspective. In the English movie, Noah is American and moves to London.
In all versions, Noah’s father was abusive and her testimony put him in prison, which is a key factor in the climax. He was also a racecar driver that taught Noah how to race. As fate would have it, Nick is involved in illegal activities, including street racing.
In the English version of the movie, “My Fault: London,” they don’t give much detail into Nick’s bad habits.
What was much more shocking though, was that the British version of Nick (Matthew Broome) was actually nice. That caught me off guard — not that I’m complaining by any means. It was refreshing to have Nick be a caring and lovable character.
In the books and Spanish movies, Nick is a self-absorbed criminal with mommy issues, while the first book and movie have action and romance, the rest are just dramatic and petty. His mommy issues are genuinely the whole plot of the second book and movie, and the third book is just him dodging Noah and not taking accountability, per usual.
Needless to say, the Spanish version of Nick is toxic, childish, arrogant and overall just annoying. But besides the needless over-the-top familial drama, I wasn’t really complaining. The movies and books were good, or so I thought.
I didn’t know the potential they could’ve had until I watched “My Fault: London.” The original movies were missing so much depth that “My Fault: London” used to their fullest capabilities.
When Noah is sent a photo of her best friend and boyfriend kissing, Nick comes up with a plan to kiss her and send a photo of it back to the anonymous sender. In a scene that is supposed to be their first kiss, the original movie kept it a bit cooler than the English version. The English version makes the viewer feel the passion and emotion between them. The original misses the “uh oh” moment when they realize they like each other, and instead just makes you a little tense.
Then, right after, there is an iconic race scene where Noah sneaks into Nick’s car and races one of the antagonists, Ronnie (Fran Berenguer). This was extremely different from the original. Not just the race itself, but the aftermath. In the original, Ronnie takes Nick’s car as a consolation, in the London version, Ronnie says he wants to fight Nick instead.
The respective fight scenes make it easy to spot the differences between the two versions of Nick. Noah is afraid of violence to the point where it will send her into a panic attack. In both movies, she goes to the fight between Nick and Ronnie. However, in the Spanish version, Nick ends up winning the fight. They get into an argument and he grabs her aggressively. Immediate turn-off.
In the English version, Nick is so afraid of losing Noah that he forfeits the fight even though he is winning, because he watched Noah walk out.
Throughout the movie, Nick is yearning for Noah in a way he never did in the original. It allowed viewers to feel the emotions that can usually only be presented in the books.
When Noah gets kidnapped, we get a better look at Nick’s reaction in the London version. We see a vulnerable side we don’t see in “Culpa Mia.”
Nick (Gabriel Guevara) in the original, helped save Noah (Nicole Wallace), but it was nothing like the epic scene in “My Fault: London.” The original, where Nick basically just chases Noah in a car around the city until it ends in an impossible move, was pretty anticlimactic compared to the newer version.
In “My Fault: London,” Nick is stabbed, and beaten and his car flips trying to save her, and still somehow doing everything in his power. The Spanish version could never.
The English movie was completely different from the Spanish books and movies, and that’s why it worked. They weren’t competing with the originals by using the same exact script but instead created their own storyline and used the original key concepts as a guide.
I remember when I was waiting for the third book to be released in English so I could recover from the second. I recovered, and then they released the second movie and I was in shambles yet again.
Now, between the second and third movies, this new version was released at the perfect time.
The English version was less toxic and more emotional. There’s only one problem. Since the plot of “Culpa Tuya” and “Culpa Nuestra” surrounds Nick and Noah’s horrible relationship, how could they make a “Your Fault: London” and “Our Fault: London” if their relationship is fine?
Hopefully, they will make two more movies with the approach they used for this one because it was so much better than the original.
