Manipulative LifeTime Quality

Rating: 1/10 (13 April 2006)

Half generic teen movie, half manipulative wanna-be tear-jerker, this piece of crap and fluff tries to showcase whitebread Mandy Moore's average singing abilities.
As recommended by her image consultant, Moore plays a dull goody-two-shoes character so puritanically over the top that God Himself has to resist the persistent urge to just snatch her up to Heaven at any given time.
To further cement her ridiculously caricaturish nature, she dresses just like your grandmother.
When Shane West needs her help with his lines for the dumb play he's forced to star in, of course she'll help! She spends all her free time helping everybody! "Just don't fall in love with me..." AWWW!
Guess what happens?
(Insert token scene of him blowing her off in the hallway, because all his friends make fun of her)
Her supreme goodness predictably makes him a better person. Awww!
I did cry at the part where the holy prude stayed out late with good-for-nothing Landon (don't worry, she's saving herself for marriage, duh!) and her preacher dad actually says "Your behavior is sinful!" I was laughing THAT hard!
What a joke! At this point, I knew there were only 2 ways the movie could go - either she gets accepted and made-over, or she dies all young and pure.
I was expecting a Vatican conference and canonization ceremony at the end, but had to settle for the lame voice-over about their short time together, etc. Yawn.
But you can always buy Mandy Moore CDs and know just what an angel from the Lord sounds like!