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A WALK TO REMEMBER
A Walk to Remember is based on a novel that I will never read.
Shane West's character is a rebel without a cause-type high school
student who purses his lips a lot and likes to wear his gold chain
over his shirt. He nearly gets a friend killed at the start of the
movie on a dare and is sentenced to do community service, where
he meets Mandy Moore, the daughter of the local pastor. Moore on
the surface could be The Simpsons' Ned Flanders' long-lost daughter,
but she possesses a sublime self-confidence despite being the daily
butt of her peers' cruel remarks. Moore sees something in West and
tries to befriend him. West spurns her at first and joins his "cool"
friends in mocking the dowdy Moore. The two end up performing in
a play set during Prohibition together and the unmotivated West
comes to realize that he's on the road to embarrassing himself.
When help from his best friend, Token Black Guy (a character practically
stolen from Not Another Teen Movie), proves insufficient, he persuades
Moore to help him run lines. Moore agrees on the condition that
West cannot fall in love with her. The play is a smash hit and in
it, Moore, in costume as a glamorous nightclub singer, is so positively
radiant, West sees her as the gorgeous knockout she truly is and
falls in love with her, actually changing the play and kissing her
onstage, much to the dismay of her father and his friends. The newly-lovestruck
West then does everything he can to win Moore over and succeeds.
They share many sweet moments as they fall deeper in love. And then
comes the big swerve: Moore has leukemia and is dying. When West
learns this, he does everything he can to make Moore's dreams come
true, ultimately redeeming himself by earning Moore's love.
That was the short version of the story. There was also the father
who wants to be in West's life, the friends West spurns as he falls
for Moore who humiliate her in front of the school, West's proving
to Moore's father that his intentions towards his daughter are noble
and how they ultimately befriend each other, West's supportive mother
(Daryl Hannah, whose face looked like it was melting), a book Moore's
dead mother gave her, and Moore's list of all the things she wants
to do before she dies - every single one of which West somehow provides
her. There's also a wedding, but Moore's funeral is kept offscreen.
The movie has a huge amount of plot and takes its sweet time, ultimately
resolving every single little plot thread and tying all loose ends
in a nice big bow. At nearly two hours, I felt the movie was too
long and some sequences could have been tightened or cut entirely,
which would have greatly improved the pace of the film.
At its core, A Walk to Remember is very much like Titanic. Two
young people who are opposites meet and experience a perfect love
before one of them tragically dies. The film also contains a huge
amount of Christian overtones, none of which I had a particular
problem with. Moore's character is someone who has a great faith
in God and there is a great deal of dialogue regarding faith from
Moore and her pastor father. Despite West's character's behavior
at the start of the movie, both Moore and West are just about the
two most perfect, angelic human beings on Earth by the time the
credits roll.
If it sounds like I'm complaining a great deal, it's because I
felt the problems with the film took too much away from its strength,
which was how West and Moore's characters fell in love. Your friend
Hank Scorpio has to admit he's a sucker for a love story. Much of
the second act was pretty terrific as West and Moore fell more deeply
in love with each other. Mandy Moore's performance was better than
expected. She brought the sweetness and inner light her role required.
As far as the movie was concerned, she was the sweetest, most desirable
girl on Earth and Moore proved equal to the role. West's early scenes
were rocky and unconvincing, but after he falls for Moore, he was
up to the challenge of his character's transformation. There were
sweet and heart-tugging moments between the two and it was during
those moments A Walk to Remember was clicking.
The problem was that nearly every good moment was followed by a
very bad moment. There are some bad lines, just plain bad scenes,
thinly sketched supporting characters, and the occasional ludicrous
moment. The use of pop songs throughout the movie were often distracting
and out of place. And as I mentioned earlier, there was too much
plot and all of it was neatly resolved at the end. It's a shame
because the two leads did very good work.
- John Orquiola (reviewed 1/17/2002)
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