A nice surprise.... absolutely loved it.

Rating: 10/10 (12 January 2005)

Came home from work, fed up, flicked on Sky, saw listing for AWTR and sat down thinking, oh well, another teen romance, I'll give it the first 30 mins and switch over. Being a fella in his his early thirties who had grown up on Brat Pack movies didn't help.
Had seen Shane West previously in 'Get Over It'(not his best work!) and knew of Mandy Moore but had never seen a review of the film, read the book, nothing.
First five minutes I thought, nothing new here. But then as the minutes went by and the first scenes between West and Moore came on screen,I couldn't get over the chemistry between the two leads. I thought both Moore and West were excellent throughout even more surprising when I find out since, it was Moore's first lead role!
The 'She's All That'clone thought did enter my mind worryingly at one point but that was refreshingly put to bed.
It was lovely to see a film like this for once taking a different track. I expected the usual that you typically expect in a film like this, Jamie ends up looking like a beauty queen, Landon gives into his mates and stops seeing her, Jamie falls out with her Dad as he forbids her to see Landon etc. How wrong was I? Without giving the game away it was such a change to see a relationship being allowed to develop before our eyes for once.
As for the twist I won't spoil it but I too have been personally effected by a situation such as Jamie's and I have to say I broke down a bit at that point. OK, it was handled in the movie 'Hollywood style' but at least it was done in my opinion sensitively, it did try and show the immense emotions you/friends/relatives find yourself in such a situation.
Since seeing the movie I've read lots of critical reviews and I have to say I've been really annoyed by some of their inane comments and opinions. Clearly most of the critics went in to review this film with their minds already made up. However Roger Eberts review on 'external links' I thought was an honest and accurate description of the movie. Sure, corny in parts, but hey what movie isn't.
It's nice to see I'm not alone in that a lot of people seem to have come across this gem of a movie by accident on cable or satellite etc and been really moved by it just like me. I cannot recommend it highly enough.
I understand the film is a pretty good adaptation of the book, slightly updated, so I'm off to buy the DVD and the book!