A Walk to Remember

Mandy Moore and Shane West in A Walk to Remember.

Most romances generate friction by throwing to opposites together and having the audience watch them attract each other. A Walk to Remember follows such a plot device. Landon is a member of the bad crowd in school while Jamie is the reverends daughter.

Landon and some friends goad a fellow student into trespassing onto some property and doing a stupid dive into a factory pool to prove that he is worthy to be their friend. The student gets hurt and Jamie gets sentenced to community service. His punishment is to tutor disadvantaged kids and act in the school play. Jamie tutors the students because she likes to and is already in the play so she and Landon end up spending all kinds of time together.

Much to the dismay of his friends and her father, they fall in love. All seems right with the world as her influence makes him into a better person and he introduces her to a social life. The movie takes the high ground in that they never have sex. She stays true to her upbringing.

Based on the book by Nicholas Sparks, (The Notebook) you know that there is more sap to the story. Jamie has Leukemia and does not have long to live. Early in the movie she tells Landon that she has a list of things she wants to do in her life time. He goes about trying to help her accomplish as many of them as he can.

Moore is the standout here. In Princess Diaries she was the school bitch. In Saved she was the pious snob. Here she down plays as the bland social outcast who cares little about what others think. Early in the movie she always wears an old sweater. Symbolically, Landon buys her a new one.

A Walk to Remember is best described as sweet. How adorably sugary are two completely likable young people falling in love and growing because of it?