A Walk To Remember (2002) 20 years before singer-actress Mandy Moore reduced the nation to tears playing the Alzheimer afflicted family matriarch of TV's "This Is Us", she similarly broke everyone's will to live by playing a dying teen leukemia victim in this adaptation of Nicholas Sparks novel.
The film updated the period setting of the novel into the more immediate here-and-now of modern day teen angst. North Carolina rebels-without-a-clue, led by the too-cool-for-school Landon Carter (Shane West) cruelly mock their gentle, sweet schoolmate Jamie Sullivan (Moore),the daughter of the town's pastor (Peter Coyote).
Landon's punishments for a hazing gone wrong force him into unwilling contact with Jamie, including tutoring middle-schoolers and appearing as her unlikely romantic co-star in their high school musical. Wouldn't you know it.......the sardonic, sarcastic bad boy begins to transform into a caring, decent upstanding guy, smitten by Jamie's inherent goodness and her unwavering Christian faith. And when Landon's heartless friends pull a heinous prank on her it serves to drive him literally into her arms.
Since this tale derives from Nicolas Sparks, you'll know that tragedy's right around the corner for these chaste but adoring young lovers.......when Jamie finally reveals her terminal diagnosis to Landon, it only strengthens and deepens his fierce devotion to her. (At this point, viewers couldn't help but reach for vast amounts of tissues to get them through the last third of the movie......
To his everlasting credit, choreographer turned director Adam Shankman ("Hairspray") keeps this story moving along at top speed with short, briskly edited scenes that make their points with immediacy, be it comedic, dramatic or romantic. And in the casting of his star-crossed duo, he benefited from a couple whose enduring chemistry made the film irresistible to audiences seeking a good cry.
As we still remember being dragged to see this film by the then teenage BD (Beloved Daughter), we can vouch for the fact that once viewers watched Shane West's sneering delinquent soften and humanize in the presence of the angelic, near ethereal Mandy Moore, the tears flowed freely.
And since BD still watches "A Walk To Remember" repeatedly, as we're sure her own eventual daughters and granddaughters will, how could we rate it anything less than 4 stars (****). For this type of tearjerker, it's truly one of the most watchable and entertaining examples of the genre we've ever encountered.
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