Flawed but touching film

Rating: 8/10 (23 April 2006)

"A Walk to Remember" will upset older viewers and some young ones, too. The film itself is excellent. It brought tears to my eyes, and justly so. My only caveat is that the original beginning of the story, set forty years ago, as it appears in Spark's book, which I read, was so different from the vulgarity of the film's modern day opening that it upset me.Also, changing the Christmas play to a spring play about gangsters also jarred me.These changes had an effect on the tone of the film and its prevailing mood which Sparks worked so hard to create in the book. Despite some other changes, the story and the acting of the two main characters was so compelling that it overcame my initial negative reaction. I would highly recommend this film, but don't read the book first. I'll never understand why film makers insist on dumbing down teenage stories with scenes that are not really typical of most of them, who are more sensitive than many Hollywood types realize.