Chrissa Stands Strong (movie)

Chrissa Stands Strong is a movie retelling the stories of Chrissa Maxwell.

Cast

 * Sammi Hanratty as Chrissa Maxwell
 * Adair Tishler as Tara James
 * Ariela Barer as Sonali Matthews
 * Kaitlyn Dever as Gwen Thompson
 * Shelby Harmon as Jayden Johnson
 * Anika Borger as Amanda
 * Annabeth Gish as Meg "Mom" Maxwell
 * Timothy Bottoms as Paul "Dad" Maxwell
 * Michael Learned as Louise "Nana" Hanlon
 * Austin Thomas as Tyler Maxwell
 * Joanne Baron as Mrs. Ziminsky
 * Jennifer Tilly as Mrs. Rundell
 * Don Franklin as Mr. Beck
 * Jennifer Parsons as Janine Thompson
 * Kaylin Stewart as Alexandra
 * Christian Pikes as Joel
 * Grace Rolek as Hayley
 * Preston/Tyler Strother as Brock
 * Ashley Ausburn as Rachal

Crew
Director: Martha Coolidge

Screenplay by: Christine Coyle Johnson and Julie Prendeville Roux

Character Differences

 * In the movie, Sonali does not begin to regret her actions as a bully until she starts to befriend Chrissa. In the book, she is disturbed by the bullying from the start. She also is not on the swim team in the movie.
 * Jadyn is a blonde in the movie; she was a brunette in the book. Also, it is implied that Tara is the cyberbully in the film, while Tara is uninvolved in the book and Jadyn is the culprit behind the cyberbullying.
 * In the books, Sonali and Jadyn are on the swim team. Also in the books, Gwen is on the swim team, but switches to being assistant to Mr. Beck. In the movie, Sonali, Jadyen and Gwen only come to the meets.
 * In the movie, the spelling of Jadyn's name is changed to Jayden.
 * In the book, Chrissa is left-handed, while in the movie she's right-handed.

Plot Differences

 * In the movie, Chrissa and Tara make a truce to allow their swim team to win. After this, Tara seems to reconsider her actions and try to reform. In the books, Tara takes the initiative to try to befriend Chrissa and Gwen, although she still accuses Chrissa of "stealing Sonali". There is no swim meet scene like in the film.
 * Tara dares Tyler in the movie to get at Chrissa; in the books Tara and Chrissa are already friends when she dares Tyler. Chrissa prompts this by muttering that someone should teach him a lesson for boasting about his dive and Tara takes it up. However, she is not as malicious as she is in the film.
 * The Solidarity Scarves only appear near the end of Chrissa, but they are more prominent in the movie.

Television Release
The movie premiered on HBO at 7:15 EST/PST on Monday, January 5th, 2009.

DVD Release
The DVD was released on January 6th, 2009 through the website and various retailers.

Items Associated With the Movie

 * Chrissa Maxwell (doll)
 * Sonali Matthews (doll)
 * Gwen Thompson (doll)
 * Chrissa's Collection

Links

 * IMDB page
 * Official site @ AmericanGirl.com

Trivia

 * In the movie, Kaitlyn Dever's character, Gwen Thompson, played the violin. Clara Rosenberg's hands were filmed playing two songs that Gwen plays in the movie. The actual songs were pre-recorded by a third person.
 * The Chrissa character was given the code name "Lulu" to prevent collectors and competitors from finding out too much about the release. "Lulu" is the name of the Chrissa movie's casting director's dog.
 * Sammi Hanratty is shown wearing several American Girl outfits: the Chrissa meet dress, the Chrissa pajamas, the School Days outfit, Chrissa's Sundress, the I Like Your Style Outfit, and the Island Luau Outfit. Gwen is shown wearing the Licorice Play Outfit.