If you're a teen girl, you'll love it. Otherwise, this one probably wasn't made for you.

Rating: Null/10 (21 February 2002)

Although not very faithful to the novel by Nicholas Sparks, this isn't too bad for a teen movie. As long as you know that you'll get all of the teen cliches so prominently displayed in the "Not Another Teen Movie" parody, then the rest will be OK for you. Most of the characters are more like caricatures of what someone thinks a typical teen from that peer group are like. The story is pretty good, but the presentation is a little stale.
Mandy Moore plays the "ugly duckling" part pretty well. It's at least notable that she did not go the Britney/Mariah route into films trying to be just as glamorous or as good looking as they think they are in real life. Her range of emotions seems pretty honest. The character is pretty well developed and easy to sympathize with. The only fault in her performance is the overly dramatic singing sequences in a few parts of the movie.
Shane West ("Whatever It Takes") does pretty well as an insecure popular kid falling for the unpopular girl. With the turn the movie takes (I won't spoil it here), his character becomes more tolerable and less typical as the film goes on. With help from good supporting actors Peter Coyote ("E.T.") and Darryl Hannah, the cast rounds out pretty nicely. Obviously this movie was not geared for critics, though, and will probably get panned. It's made for teen girls and that's about it. So, in that respect, it's served its purpose and isn't bad for what it is. It's got its target audience covered and will probably do well in malls and multiplexes across the country. If you're in that demographic, go check it out. If not, you'll be fine waiting for video if you're even curious at all.