A Walk to Remember Review
by John Sylva (DeWyNGaLe AT aol DOT com)August 13th, 2002
A WALK TO REMEMBER (2002)
Reviewed by John Sylva
(C) 2002, TheMovieInsider.com
If the third act developments of Adam Shankman's A Walk to Remember are surprising to you, you ought to study up on the history of two-hankie romance pictures in Hollywood. Ever since 1970's Love Story, a handful of filmmakers have taken delight in manipulating the heartstrings of film-goers with simplistic, three-act romantic dramas in which one of the subject lovers falls prey to some disease or horrible accident by film's end. While Shankman milks the illness of one of his leads far less than directors of previous films of this nature have, his A Walk to Remember, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, remains an overly mushy, stereotypical romance in which the viewer will see what's coming a mile away. Granted, even Love Story, which is considered the pinnacle of this genre, rests very comfortably on the sidelines of the finest romantic dramas produced, but the talented young stars of A Walk to Remember could have easily made this film a bright spot of its typically awful variety. Yet Shankman's film consistently finds itself bogged down in sigh-inducing cliches and unintentionally funny dialogue that gradually form an indestructible barrier between the viewer and the story's heart.
A generation of teens will likely be manipulated by A Walk to Remember with glee, falling for high school seniors Landon (Shane West) and Jamie (Mandy Moore) every bit as much they do for each other. It's somewhat understandable why they would, too: As performed by West and Moore, Landon and Jane are two realistically drawn youngsters with their entire lives ahead of them that come off more every-guy and every-girl in their presentations than most teens in films do. Their unlikely relationship begins after Landon's caught trespassing at a local factory and is sentenced to a variety of teen-torture affairs such as participating in the drama club production and educating the slower students. Landon encounters Jamie through these activities, as she considers assisting others and performing arts to be appealing. The two grow closer as Jamie helps Landon learn his lines for the play, paving the way to a relationship that the rest of the school ridicules. There are honest qualities to be found in these two, yet A Walk to Remember's insistence on following tired genre staples challenges the viewer to decide which of his or her actions the film is more deserving of: hitting the power button on the old noggin for two hours to be swept away by the typical romantic devices or allowing one's self to recognize the blatant flaws present in the film's execution and scrutinize them. As much as I would have preferred carrying out the former, the film simply doesn't work often enough for the latter to be avoided.
So modest and innocent that disliking the picture is harder than one might expect, A Walk to Remember suffers mainly because screenwriter Karen Janszen feels the need to dwell on certain events unnecessary for, in the words of one character, the cause of "the greater good." Janszen opens with an I Know What You Did Last Summer-esque sequence that feels tonally detached from the r est of the film; viewers understand the likes of Landon perfectly well without the incorporation of such obvious events as Landon's tricking the kid who wants to fit in to jump off a platform into water that's only a few feet deep. Likewise, Jamie is scripted with a simplicity that seems inspired by Ali MacGraw's Love Story character, walking upright with books in hand, never giving in to anyone's pressures. Unlike MacGraw's character though, Jamie would never spout the constant "Goddamn" expressions, taking solace in fundamental religious beliefs. While Janszen does occasionally capture a spare moment of joy (a brief segment that owes more to the use of the song "Dancing in the Moonlight" than the writing being the most notable) in her adaptation, everything else is far too contrived, too obviously designed for the viewer to be affected. For instance: Why does Jamie, in her first meetings with Landon, make him promise that he won't fall in love with her? Is this A Walk to Remember's idea of foreshadowing? It seems the production team should have taken a few courses in Filmmaking 101, let alone Intro to Romantic Dramas. Much like the illness that pulls Landon and Jamie apart, this is a film whose aspiration is torn apart by something even deadlier than leukemia in the film world: banality.
GRADE: C-
Film reviewed August 12th, 2002.
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