Former Naperville resident Emily Giffin's novel hits big screen

Colleagues of author and former Naperville resident Emily Giffin warned her that having one of her books made into a movie wouldn't necessarily be a fun experience.

So when Hollywood bought the rights to her best-selling first novel, “Something Borrowed,” Giffin kept her expectations low.

“I assumed, first of all, that I would be excluded from the process,” Giffin said. “And I figured the movie would not be as good as the book.

“I was wrong on both counts.”

The movie version of “Something Borrowed” opens Friday, May 6. Kate Hudson and John Krasinski star in the film, which was directed by Luke Greenfield.

Giffin, a graduate of Naperville North High School, said that Greenfield and the film's producers invited her to participate in the adaptation process. She read every draft of the script, observed the casting, even made a cameo in the film.

And, when she saw the final cut, she was delighted.

“I was a little nervous going in, I have to confess,” she said. “But I genuinely loved it. It's so good in its own right that I forgot I was watching something that I'd written.”

“Something Borrowed” is about two close friends, Rachel and Darcy, whose relationship is tested when Rachel gets involved with Darcy's fiance. The novel, which came out in 2004, earned acclaim as an intelligent and affecting romantic comedy.

“I love romantic comedies,” Giffin said. “But so many are filled with caricatures and clichés. They have no depth, which is why the ‘chick lit' label is considered a negative.

“I wanted to do something different. I wanted the characters to have some shades of gray, to put them in unsympathetic situations. I think the movie captures this.”

Giffin started writing in the late 1990s while working as an attorney in Manhattan. She did not like being a lawyer and had been interested in writing since childhood.

Her first finished work, a novel for young adults, aroused no interest among publishers. Undaunted, she retired from her legal career, moved to London and focused all her energy on a new project, the book that would become “Something Borrowed.”

Since then, Giffin has published four additional novels — all best-sellers — including a popular sequel to “Something Borrowed” called “Something Blue.” She lives in Atlanta with her husband and three children.

Giffin, who grew up loving the teen comedies made by the late John Hughes, said she plans to stay involved with the movie business; she's cowriting a screenplay based on her book “Baby Proof” with Kevin Garnett, a friend of hers from Naperville North.

“It's a different kind of writing, but I like stretching myself, and I love working with an old friend,” she said. “I'm not sure what will come of it, but if the experience is half as fun as the one I've had with ‘Something Borrowed,' then I'll be very happy.”