A sloppy sap-fest...

Rating: Null/10 (9 February 2002)

A WALK TO REMEMBER / (2002) D-
By Wes Alexander
Teen romances have become very painful for me. It started in 2000 with HERE ON EARTH, continued on with CRAZY/BEAUTIFUL in 2001 and now A WALK TO REMEMBER. I don't know when the creators of these movies stopped caring, but they better start caring soon. The month of January scares me because it is usually the worst month for movies. Studios save all of their good movies for December and in January send out whatever's left on the shelf.

A WALK TO REMEMBER is exactly the same as every other movie of this genre, but here goes: Shane West plays Landon Carter, a reckless teenager who decides it's time to change after a friend of his has an accident He has to- ya know what? Screw it. It's not worth the time to write the summary. You know what happens. He meets Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore) and she starts to change his life forever, as said in the trailer. The two fall in love and so on and whatnot.
It seems with each of these movies I get even more irritated. This film is filled with so many clichÃ©s it's not even funny. This is a line in the movie: `Everything was going fine, then you happened.' I'm serious. That's the kind of dialogue these characters say. The screenplay by Karen Janszen is filled with the most unbelievable and insane dialogue. Does she realize real people don't talk like that? I've never read the book, but I have a high suspicion it's better than the movie.
The only thing that saves this movie is the fact that Moore and West have chemistry. It's rare in these movies, but it does happen in this one. I don't personally like Mandy Moore, but she makes the most of this material. I don't really like Shane West either, but the two make a good pair. It's a pity that they couldn't have had something decent to work with.

It is no doubt that teenage girls will eat up this kind of tripe. It's not their fault, they don't know any better. But, the lack of emotion is a real drag. A half and hour episode of MTV's Undressed has more emotion than all two hours of WALK. This film will be easily forgotten.