movie review: a walk to remember

I haven't posted any new book reviews because honestly i haven't finished reading any books after Where Rainbows End. Been trying to read City of Heavenly Fire but haven't been committed to it. I have these long phases of not-in-the-mood-to-read sometimes, even though i love to read. But anyway, a few days ago i was feeling depressed for no reason so i decided to watch my favourite movie of all time; A Walk To Remember.


A Walk To Remember is quite an old movie that was adapted from the book by Nicholas Sparks. You would probably think of it as a cliche love story, but ah well it's the best cliche love story that i'd watch over and over and still get the same feels. I first watched it when i was 13, but i didn't love it as much before. I think now that i'm much older, i'm able to catch more morals and feels from the movie and appreciate it at a whole new level.

The story is about a guy named Landon Carter who's basically in the popular clique in high school, the type who gets drunk at parties and does stupid risky things for fun. After an unexpected accident, Landon gets caught by the police and gets a series of punishments from the school principal. He was forced to spend time with a different group of people; having to participate in the school play, tutoring disadvantaged kids, helping the janitorial board etc..

While living along with his punishments, he sees more of the ordinary-looking Jamie Sullivan, a girl he's been in class with since they were in kindergarten but has never spoken to. Jamie is the type of girl who wears outdated clothes and is very religious, being the reverend's daughter. She doesn't date boys, volunteers at charities for fun, builds telescopes to view the stars and planets, has a classical-jazzy taste in music and lives confidently with her faith in God.

Landon thinks he knows what type of person Jamie is, but she insists that he only knows what she chooses to show everyone. She surprises him with her fascination and principles. During the school play, Jamie astonishes the entire audience when she appears on stage looking fully transformed in a beautiful silky gown and light make-up. Her performance when she sung "Only Hope" was so breathtaking till it brought awed applause from the crowd. Landon was the one who was most moved by Jamie, because he spontaneously kissed her during the play even though it was not in the script.

A lot of things happened after that night, and i won't spoil it all to those who haven't watched the movie or read the book.

One of the reasons why this is my favourite movie of all time is because of its innocence. It has zero sex scenes and the longest kiss in the movie was only for about 5 seconds. Although it does have a few swearing words mentioned, i love the fact that it didn't need to add any adult element to make the movie incredible and moving. The performance from the cast was just spectacular and so convincing, especially from the two main characters. The actor who played Landon did great in portraying Landon's character development; transitioning from the badboy to the sweetest guy in the world. Mandy Moore was also just as fantastic, being innocently sassy. The script in this movie is just superb, in my opinion. I never appreciated it much before, but being older i can finally understand more of what they were really saying and everything.

[Spoiler section]

Before that, is it just me or during the scene when they were in the bus, it seemed like the perfect kind of setting for the Eleanor & Park movie? Yes, i actually thought about that while watching, lol. Anyway,

When i first watched this movie, i focused too much on the relationship between Landon and Jamie. Admittedly, that is the main idea of the movie but when i watched it recently, i saw so much more lessons than just the love between a boy and a girl. For instance,i became to adore Landon's relationship with his mum, his best friend, and finally his dad. Oh God, the feels were too much when he finally forgave his dad when his dad finally proved to him that he really cared about his son. That crying scene was so moving; you're lying if you say you didn't feel even at least touched by it. Then there was the scene with his best friends right afterwards, where they apologized for not understanding what Landon saw in Jamie until it brought conflict in their friendship.

As well as that, i also loved Jamie's relationship with her dad. The best scene that showed their beautiful bond was the scene where she got admitted into the hospital, and her dad finally expressed his feelings and love for her. What made it even sadder was how he described his feelings when Jamie's mother passed away when Jamie was very young(or was it when she was born?). If you read into the movie, you'd realise that her dad was going to lose another love of his life, which multiplies the feels even more.

It was so touching and romantic how Landon chose to stay by Jamie's side despite the fact that she didn't have long to live. He did his best to finish crossing off Jamie's list, and even learnt how to dance from his mum. Seeing how he stayed up all night to finish building the telescope for Jamie, and how satisfied but sad he looked when she could see the miraculous star(?) through it when it was finished, was heartbreakingly sweet. OMG and how he propose to her, I CAN'T. THAT WAS WHEN I JUST COULDN'T HANDLE THE FEELS ANYMORE. And when she walked down the aisle looking so beautiful and he was at the end of it just waiting for his bride with his dad by his side and when they whispered "I love you" as the reverend was reading out that wonderful passage from Jamie's mum's notebook and when the camera just zoomed out AHHH I CAN'T LAHHH. I'M DONE, I CAN'T.

[End of spoiler section]

I loved this movie so much that my SPM essay was a complete rip-off from the movie HAHAH! I had to write an essay that ended with "..and i became a better person" or something like that. I was on four pages halfway through the story but i was running out of time so i had to rush the ending. I used different names just in case the person marking my paper has watched the movie before. I guess because i knew the movie by heart, it was so easy to effortlessly write my essay. I got an A1 and an A+ for my English, so THANK YOU NICHOLAS SPARKS!

But yeah, i love this movie. Go watch it if you haven't, but don't have high expectations lah, because as you can see, i tend to exaggerate too much sometimes. I didn't like the book as much as i loved the movie, which rarely happens to other book-to-movie adaptations.