Running time: 101 minutes
Starring: Mandy Moore, Shane West, Peter Coyote, Daryl Hannah, Clayne Crawford
Rating 5 out of 10
Rosy-cheeked teen pop starlet Mandy Moore makes her bid for big screen immortality in A Walk To Remember. Like singing rival Britney Spears, she has chosen a romantic drama about high school students who fall hopelessly in love, despite their obvious differences. However, A Walk To Remember doesn't have the same joie de vivre (cheesy as it may be) as Crossroads.
The story is torn, cliches and all, from the novel by Nicholas Sparks, and makes no excuses for manipulating the audience, and milking every last crocodile tear. And there are quite a few.
The film's plucky heroine is good girl Jamie Sullivan (Moore), a hard worker and social outcast who is ridiculed mercilessly at her North Carolina school by the so-called in-crowd. Her preacher father, Reverend Sullivan (Peter Coyote), worries for her, but Jamie rises above the gibes and insults.
Romance blossoms unexpectedly when Jamie meets Landon Carter (Shane West), one of the popular kids, who is forced to take part in the school play as punishment for a prank which goes disastrously wrong. Landon doesn't want to humiliate himself on the stage and he begs Jamie to help him learn his lines.
The two grow close, but he's reluctant to acknowledge her around school, and jeopardise his own cool status. You can guess the rest, including Jamie's bombshell revelation that precipitates the weepy, sentimental finale.
Moore and West are an attractive couple but their acting range is limited, not that the script gives them much to work with. Although it's refreshing to see a teen romance which doesn't relentlessly speak down to its target audience, some of the dialogue sounds forced and preachy. When Landon whimpers to the Reverend, "Jamie has faith in me. She makes me want to be different. Better," you can't help but choke down a snigger.
Ultimately A Walk To Remember fails to live up to its title.
