Great Performance By Mandy Moore Saves This Movie

Rating: 7/10 (29 July 2017)

From Nicholas Sparks' second novel, "A Walk To Remember" pairs Mandy Moore and Shane West as high school teens at opposite ends of everything. Moore plays a bible carrying sweetheart who is basically a saint with an amazing singing voice, while West plays a jackass who is part of the cool crowd. Neither of them has much in common, but a prank pulled by West causes an accident that forces West to do community service. One such service is to take part in a school playplaying the lead. Huh, what? West has no interest in playing lead, nor does he have any experience in acting; but the drama teacher gives him the male lead anyway becausewell, because the screenwriter and director want West and Moore to have a reason to spend lots of time together, and they couldn't be bothered with writing a more plausible reason, so we just have to accept that shenanigan.
So anywayMoore/West have to study their lines together and guess what? West starts to like Moore, despite her being all goody goody and wearing weird clothes and the same sweaterwell, to be fair, Moore is beautiful and is such a nice person and honest and intelligent — traits that West is hard pressed to find in his cool group. Moore's portrayal of her character is absolutely on the money, very believable and extremely likable; and it is Moore who saves this movie from being a cheese fest and catapults it to an entertaining, heartwarming rom/com/drama.
Enough of me gushing over Moore's performance. West/Moore's romance of course hits the obvious bumps: the cool kids hate her; the father hates West; West feels alienated by his cool friends, etc. But the biggest bump is when Moore reveals her secret to West. This revelation is my most memorable, movie moment, which I will not spoil; but fans of Sparks will probably guess the secret.
For the average moviegoer, "A Walk To Remember" will be a bit too corny and syrupy for their tastes; but for rom/com/drama fans, this is one of the better ones, and Mandy Moore's performance has almost everything to do with it.
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