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A Walk to Remember
(Adam Shankman, 2002)
The ultimate tear-jerker, A Walk to Remember is a story about self-discovery, transformation, and true, perpetual love. It’s a film that invokes great happiness and deep sorrow, and it takes its audience on a journey that causes those who relate to it to look at their own life with newfound contemplation and enlightenment. On a personal level, I haven’t been touched by a movie so profoundly in a very long time; for hours after watching it, A Walk to Remember took primary residence in my thoughts, making me think of what I, myself, value most in my life, and what I wish to accomplish in the future.
ER’s Shane West plays Landon Carter, a troubled teen who hangs out with the wrong crowd. Threatened with expulsion from his North Carolina high school, Landon is forced to do community service on school campus after hospitalizing, accidentally, another student during a late-night gang initiation. Meant to gain the newcomer entry into Carter’s circle of friends, the initiation goes horribly wrong once the student finds himself critically injured, and when Landon abandons the badly-hurt student when police arrive at the scene, he is later faced with expulsion. He lucks out, however, with commitment to community service, offered by the lenient school principal.
For unpredictable reasons—reasons he’d never dream to consider—the community service proved one-thousand times better a punishment; while rehearsing for a school play he consequently found himself forced to be a part of, Landon meets Jamie Sullivan, the girl who would change his life forever.
Jamie Sullivan, played by Mandy Moore, is a shy, church-going girl who Landon has known all of his life, but has never once talked to; they’d been attending the same schools since Kindergarten but have never actually interacted, until now. When Landon has trouble memorizing his lines for the school play, he seeks Jamie’s help, and when he goes to her home to get help rehearsing after class, it’s then that his feelings for her—and later, her feelings for him—take root and begin to develop, as they spend more time with each other. It’s then during the actual performance of the school play that Landon’s liking-ness of Jamie turns to undeniable love, and this once trouble-making “tough guy” is transformed, over time, into a caring, thoughtful young man. Their newfound relationship changes Jamie, too; she begins to fear a terrible fate that she knows awaits her when, previously, she had come to accept it without a fight. She begins living life to its fullest again, and enjoying all that it has to offer instead of remaining inside her shell of blind faith.
A Walk to Remember has a powerful story which is only exceeded in excellence by its acting. I haven’t seen much of Shane West’s, but he gives a very believable and personally relatable performance as Landon Carter, and Mandy Moore’s portrayal of Jamie Sullivan is incredible. I’m not claiming that she’s among the best in the business, but this movie, along with a couple others (All I Want also starring Elijah Wood, for one), sky-rocketed her up my “favorite actresses” list. I like a lot of Mandy Moore’s music, but I think she’s an even better actress than she is a musical performer; it’s just that, usually, she doesn’t have much to work with. Of course, that isn’t the case here.
Like with Shane West, I haven’t seen much of Adam Shankman’s other work (which includes Hairspray and The Wedding Planner), but in A Walk to Remember, he gives brilliant direction. The cinematography is fantastic; the transitions from scene to scene occur smoothly, and the passing of time is presented clearly and without confusion. Everything here from the lighting to the sound is top-notch and well done, at least in my opinion, from what I’ve seen in the film.
The only thing that holds A Walk to Remember back from being a true masterpiece is the “cheesy,” cliché vibe it gives off early in the film, complete with your "token" black guy. This unwelcome aura quickly fades away once the story develops into something far greater, but while it lasts, the vibe is somewhat hard to shake off and it's difficult to take the movie seriously.
Overall, A Walk to Remember is an incredible film with powerful performances, one in particular by a somewhat unlikely star: Mandy Moore. The story so profound that it caused me to dwell upon its themes for days, and its ending left a hole in my movie-watching heart. I had seen A Walk to Remember once before, but that was some time ago, and upon this revisiting it has become a new personal Top 100 favorite of mine, and is one of the saddest—and yet spiritually uplifting—movies I’ve ever seen.
(Adam Shankman, 2002)
The ultimate tear-jerker, A Walk to Remember is a story about self-discovery, transformation, and true, perpetual love. It’s a film that invokes great happiness and deep sorrow, and it takes its audience on a journey that causes those who relate to it to look at their own life with newfound contemplation and enlightenment. On a personal level, I haven’t been touched by a movie so profoundly in a very long time; for hours after watching it, A Walk to Remember took primary residence in my thoughts, making me think of what I, myself, value most in my life, and what I wish to accomplish in the future.
ER’s Shane West plays Landon Carter, a troubled teen who hangs out with the wrong crowd. Threatened with expulsion from his North Carolina high school, Landon is forced to do community service on school campus after hospitalizing, accidentally, another student during a late-night gang initiation. Meant to gain the newcomer entry into Carter’s circle of friends, the initiation goes horribly wrong once the student finds himself critically injured, and when Landon abandons the badly-hurt student when police arrive at the scene, he is later faced with expulsion. He lucks out, however, with commitment to community service, offered by the lenient school principal.
For unpredictable reasons—reasons he’d never dream to consider—the community service proved one-thousand times better a punishment; while rehearsing for a school play he consequently found himself forced to be a part of, Landon meets Jamie Sullivan, the girl who would change his life forever.
Jamie Sullivan, played by Mandy Moore, is a shy, church-going girl who Landon has known all of his life, but has never once talked to; they’d been attending the same schools since Kindergarten but have never actually interacted, until now. When Landon has trouble memorizing his lines for the school play, he seeks Jamie’s help, and when he goes to her home to get help rehearsing after class, it’s then that his feelings for her—and later, her feelings for him—take root and begin to develop, as they spend more time with each other. It’s then during the actual performance of the school play that Landon’s liking-ness of Jamie turns to undeniable love, and this once trouble-making “tough guy” is transformed, over time, into a caring, thoughtful young man. Their newfound relationship changes Jamie, too; she begins to fear a terrible fate that she knows awaits her when, previously, she had come to accept it without a fight. She begins living life to its fullest again, and enjoying all that it has to offer instead of remaining inside her shell of blind faith.
A Walk to Remember has a powerful story which is only exceeded in excellence by its acting. I haven’t seen much of Shane West’s, but he gives a very believable and personally relatable performance as Landon Carter, and Mandy Moore’s portrayal of Jamie Sullivan is incredible. I’m not claiming that she’s among the best in the business, but this movie, along with a couple others (All I Want also starring Elijah Wood, for one), sky-rocketed her up my “favorite actresses” list. I like a lot of Mandy Moore’s music, but I think she’s an even better actress than she is a musical performer; it’s just that, usually, she doesn’t have much to work with. Of course, that isn’t the case here.
Like with Shane West, I haven’t seen much of Adam Shankman’s other work (which includes Hairspray and The Wedding Planner), but in A Walk to Remember, he gives brilliant direction. The cinematography is fantastic; the transitions from scene to scene occur smoothly, and the passing of time is presented clearly and without confusion. Everything here from the lighting to the sound is top-notch and well done, at least in my opinion, from what I’ve seen in the film.
The only thing that holds A Walk to Remember back from being a true masterpiece is the “cheesy,” cliché vibe it gives off early in the film, complete with your "token" black guy. This unwelcome aura quickly fades away once the story develops into something far greater, but while it lasts, the vibe is somewhat hard to shake off and it's difficult to take the movie seriously.
Overall, A Walk to Remember is an incredible film with powerful performances, one in particular by a somewhat unlikely star: Mandy Moore. The story so profound that it caused me to dwell upon its themes for days, and its ending left a hole in my movie-watching heart. I had seen A Walk to Remember once before, but that was some time ago, and upon this revisiting it has become a new personal Top 100 favorite of mine, and is one of the saddest—and yet spiritually uplifting—movies I’ve ever seen.