A bit saccharine but better than some sugar.

Rating: 7/10 (21 February 2002)

I think I can fairly say that as an agnostic man rapidly approaching his mid-thirties, I'm not exactly the target audience for `A Walk to Remember'. That alone is its own disclaimer: I need not even add that I'm cynical, jaded, and universally unmoved by the machinations that filmmakers (and novelists) use to tug at our emotions. Most films in this genre send my eyes straight to the back of my skull immediately to rest there for the next two hours. It's not even the type of film I would normally find myself attending were it not a bout of whimsical nostalgia. I think my even being in the theater may take a bit of mercifully short explanation:
When I saw the trailer, I was struck how much young Miss Moore reminded me of a girl I loved the summer before my senior year. That was lure and when I sat in the theater and saw this story mirrored my own - good, moral girl takes a chance on the wild guy - it made me think about things I'd not considered for years. Unlike Landon, I was not wise enough to appreciate the gift I was given and she gave up on me, to my immediate regret. Two thousand miles and seventeen years later in a Los Angeles theater I was surprised to find that I still regretted it. On the drive home I even found myself taking stock of my life and the way I live it. The movie made me think and it made me feel. No one could have been more surprised than me.
Still, I can see the faults with `A Walk to Remember'. Though Shane West manages to convey some solid emotion as Landon and Mandy Moore's Jamie radiates despite both inexperience and a frumpy wardrobe, these characters are one-dimensional and seem slaves to the sheer unoriginality of the story. Typical is a scene where Landon's ex-girlfriend cruelly passes out flyers with sweet Jamie's head pasted on a Club magazine covergirl's body. Sadly, it is overdone with all the attendant movie clichés: Close-ups of school kids laughing like hyenas, close-ups of Jamie's sweaty mortification, a heartbeat soundtrack, all of the above moving at half-speed. A better (and ultimately more difficult) scene would have shown us a Jamie capable of standing up for herself in the moment, perhaps breaking down only when it had passed and she was alone with Landon, enabling him to return and still throw the punch that estranges himself from his friends. A viewer that lacks a personal connection and therefore the ability to fill these missteps with the emotional shorthand needed, could certainly point to this scene and others as a reason to dismiss the entire film. However, with the possible exception of professional movie critics and some members of the reptile family, I think most of us enjoy a level of intercourse with our poor battered hearts. Hopefully enough to allow ourselves the occasional emotional manipulation even when it is as nakedly applied as in this film.
As teen love stories go, `A Walk to Remember' may deserve some points for trying to transcend the genre even if it doesn't quite make the climb. Certainly, it might be more beneficial to our culture if we were given more young female characters like Jamie. If girls like her were given some equal time among the teeny-bopper bimbettes that permeate entertainment, it might just open some young men to the reality of what they should be finding attractive and start looking not only with their eyes, but with their hearts and minds. At the very least, it may spare some of them a surprising and unnerving feeling of deep regret, years later, when they least expect it.

If you have a serious sweet tooth, the film is a 10. For those who have loved and lost at a young enough age where you can still manage a pang when you think about it, it's a solid 7. If you can't give it at least a four, get on a transplant list - your heart is about to go.