A Walk to Remember
Released: 2002
Version: Video
Length: Approx. 101 min.
Rated: PG
Main Cast: Shane West, Mandy Moore (II), Peter Coyote, Daryl Hannah, Lauren German, Paz de la Huerta, Matt Lutz.
Here's a movie based on a short romance novel by Nicholas Sparks. I enjoyed the book quite a bit, and for this review I read the book and have a little comparison between the movie and the text at the end. But first, you can read my impression of the movie:
We begin with some teens hanging out at some warehouses near a dock or something. There's some kind of initiation thing going on and one of the teens has to jump off a high walkway into some water. It's stupid...it's dumb...it's peer pressure, and the fool bows to it and almost kills himself for the trouble. Let that be a lesson to you. Don't be as stupid as this guy.
Landon Carter (Shane West) is one of the guys that was in on it. He's a rebel. He's a jerk. He's the hero too. His friends are jerks as well. There's a lot of sexual innuendo between their lot and plenty of swearing. So cool!!! That's da way ta be, I tell ya! (Heavy sarcasm...)
Anyway, there's a good looking Christian chick named Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore), the daughter of the local preacher, Reverend Sullivan (Peter Coyote). She sings in the choir, carries a Bible with her almost everywhere, and is a nice, polite girl. Of course, that's not cool, so she's made fun of.
So, Carter gets in trouble for his escapade and has to make up for it by being a tutor/mentor to lower classmen/middle-schoolers. He also gets janitorial duty. Jamie tries to be his friend and after a couple of brush offs from Carter, they fall in love. This happens because they see each other for who they really are in a play that they're both involved in. She gets gussied up, and he falls for another pretty face.
We learn the terrible truth about her, but let's just skip that and say that love prevails. She gets most of her dreams to come true and then she dies. He goes off to college...
The Good Stuff:
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Decent acting... |
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Good portrayal of Christian beliefs...sort of. Didn't go quite far enough |
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Soundtrack was decent. Had Christian band, Switchfoot, play quite a few songs... |
The Bad Stuff:
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Too much swearing for this type of movie. |
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While Jamie was nice, her father, a preacher, was a little too gruff. (as a preacher...as a father...uh, he was ok) |
Dumb Stuff:
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More love springing from nothing much. "Oh, I love you because you all of a sudden let your hair down..." I don't think so! |
Da movie vs. da Book:
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The movie seems to take only the bare essentials from the book. There's a girl that's a preacher's daughter who has leukemia and a guy that's a rebel. They fall in love. And there's a play and a wedding. That's about the only similarities between the two. |
| In the book, the play was written by the preacher. And it had Christian values. Also, Landon wasn't coerced into taking drama (in the book). He chose it himself. A dwonky kid wrote the play in the movie...and it was a pretty sad play...oh, and there was no kissing of Jamie in it either (in the book, in the movie there was). Gimme a break! |
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Also in the book, Jamie had no list of things she wanted to do before she died. She did want to get married. That was a dream, but there's no mention of it being in a particular church. The only requirement was that it be overflowing with people. |
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Yes, Landon was a rebel in the book...if you call going out at night to chew on boiled peanuts in the graveyard or to soap up car windows rebellious. Yes, I know. We HAD to update it for our culture... |
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Jamie actually gets really sick in the book. She stopped walking before Landon proposed to her and the title of the movie was based around the fact that she actually walked down the aisle after being so weak. The movie's idea of this scene blew! She was never very sick... |
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Does she actually die? Well, read the book and decide for yourself. |
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Landon's father is NOT a doctor! What's up with that??? He's a big time congressman...and he was still married to Landon's mother; he just wasn't home much. |
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The book is a lot better. It does have too much swearing in it too. But there aren't any nasty humping images to contend with. And there are a lot more Christian overtones, all of which were heavier. She gave Landon a Bible, for example...not some lame quote book! Remember, the book is almost always better. (At least, in my experience.) |
I thought that this had a good portrayal of Christians in general. (Except for some of the pastor's actions...what a grump!) There were plenty of positive elements, but those were balanced out with a lot of negatives too. It's an okay flick, probably best viewed with a mixed audience.
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