Film Reviews

A Walk To Remember

• Rating:
• Director: Adam Shankman.
• Starring: Shane West, Mandy Moore, Peter Coyote, Daryl Hannah, Lauren German, Clayne Crawford, Al Thompson.
• Details: US / 103 minutes / (12PG).

Old fashioned, wholesome, love-from-the-wrong-side-of-tracks affair which tells the story of two small town teenagers, Landon Carter (Shane West) and Jaime Sullivan (Moore). After getting himself in trouble with the powers that be once again, bad boy Carter is made to do some community service that results in him coming into contact with the holier-than-thou daughter of the local preacher, Jaime Sullivan. Of course, after a rocky start, the pair fall in love before a devastating admission changes the shape of their relationship. Depending on your tastes, A Walk to Remember is either a refreshing take on the teen genre picture, a 'straight', non ironic film that harks back to simpler, less cynical days. Or alternatively, it's a hideously mawkish piece of rubbish that gives sentimentality a bad name. If you've been a semi-regular reader of the film reviews on this website, I don't think it's too much to assume what I thought of it. Still, West and Moore have to be commended for managing to keep straight faces while uttering some of the most banal dialogue this side of a Sly Stallone excursion. Evil is not the word.

Review by Garreth Murphy