Finally I can forgive Mandy Moore for "Candy."

Rating: Null/10 (31 May 2004)

By rights, I shouldn't have cared for "A Walk To Remember" - not only does it scream "painfully predictable sapfest" but it prominently features pop starlet turned movie starlet Mandy Moore, the tall maiden responsible for the skin-crawlingly bad single "Candy" and one of the problems with the otherwise quite appealing "The Princess Diaries." And it does start off badly, with our hero (Shane West) getting arrested after a dare out by a factory goes wrong and everyone runs for it. It also doesn't help that practically everyone he goes to school with is some kind of stereotype (especially his black best friend - there are black guys who don't like hip-hop, you know). And then there's the quiet, almost saintly girl who he has to do the school play with, and who's his polar opposite, especially in matters of faith.
And yet... and yet... The movie is, in fact, pretty affecting. True, everyone but the two main characters is pretty flimsy; yes, Mandy's solo number in the school play does have "gratuitous" written all over it; indeed, it doesn't add up to all that much in the end; but the movie's too sincere in its approach to really despise, and while it does have a pro-faith agenda it doesn't take a Jehovah's Witness approach to its story, thanks to a lot of restraint in its telling and acting - no Big Dramatic Moments (even though some of the story turns would almost justify it), just plenty of heart.
"A Walk To Remember" actually did better at the US box office than Britney Spears's "Crossroads" - while I'm a Britney man, I have to admit that this movie deserved to do so. It may be sentimental drama, but it's pretty good sentimental drama. (And yes, Mandy Moore can act.)