bnorthup
01-29-2002, 02:23 PM
A Walk to Remember (PG)
At the Gaslight
Dad: 1.5 stars
Daughter 1 star
A Cliche' to Forget
By Brent and Katherine Northup
“Love Story” was a cloying, overwrought tale about love and death that, somehow, managed to rise above Ryan O’Neal to become a tolerable guilty pleasure, a weepy three-hankie date movie. “A Walk to Remember” is a cloying, overwrought tale of love and death that, somehow, manages to take an awful script and make it worse with regrettable casting and melodramatic direction.
My daughter tells me that the lead actress, Mandy Moore, is a successful pop star. I’m relieved to hear she has a back-up career, because her performance in “Walk to Remember” ain’t gonna bring Oscar to her door. In fact, Oscar’s more likely to fall over laughing and chip his cute little gold head on the marble floor.
The familiar tale finds a rebellious boy falling in love with a preacher’s daughter – and being transformed into a physician! Alas, just as he’s starting to feel good about his new-improved self, his girlfriend runs her hand across her forehead and announces she’s dying of leukemia. Blessedly for the moviegoers, it’s a short illness. Where’s my coat, it’s time to go home.
Perhaps I best turn the rest over to daughter, who is closer to the target audience for this high-school love affair. She, too, it turns out, has some “reservations.”
“It wasn’t a very memorable film,” said Katherine, 15. “It’s probably one of the most gag-reflex-wrenching clichés I’ve seen in quite a while – but at least it was a sweetly done cliche.
“There are so many movies out there in the world that have two unlikely people fall in love and then be separated by tragedy, that you could build a tower higher than the Citadel with them. It’s been done to death and beyond.
“Right up until when Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore) told Landon (Shane West) that she had leukemia, I thought I was seeing another “She’s All That.” Practically the only differences up until that point between “A Walk to Remember” and “She’s All That” were that the girl was the daughter of a reverend, and she was a total and complete Christian. I don’t have anything at all against Christianity, but the producers went a bit overboard.
“As for Mandy Moore, her acting wasn’t bad, but she never changes. She’s always the same: “You don’t know me, and I’ll prove your assumptions wrong.” Teen pop stars aren’t very interesting these days.
“I would recommend this movie to teens and up. There are quite a few curse words, sexual innuendoes, and a bit of violence. But other than that, save this movie for a time when you have absolutely nothing else to do. Go see something like, “A Beautiful Mind.” That, at least, would be interesting.”
Dad and daughter are in agreement (today) – and everything’s right with the world.
END
At the Gaslight
Dad: 1.5 stars
Daughter 1 star
A Cliche' to Forget
By Brent and Katherine Northup
“Love Story” was a cloying, overwrought tale about love and death that, somehow, managed to rise above Ryan O’Neal to become a tolerable guilty pleasure, a weepy three-hankie date movie. “A Walk to Remember” is a cloying, overwrought tale of love and death that, somehow, manages to take an awful script and make it worse with regrettable casting and melodramatic direction.
My daughter tells me that the lead actress, Mandy Moore, is a successful pop star. I’m relieved to hear she has a back-up career, because her performance in “Walk to Remember” ain’t gonna bring Oscar to her door. In fact, Oscar’s more likely to fall over laughing and chip his cute little gold head on the marble floor.
The familiar tale finds a rebellious boy falling in love with a preacher’s daughter – and being transformed into a physician! Alas, just as he’s starting to feel good about his new-improved self, his girlfriend runs her hand across her forehead and announces she’s dying of leukemia. Blessedly for the moviegoers, it’s a short illness. Where’s my coat, it’s time to go home.
Perhaps I best turn the rest over to daughter, who is closer to the target audience for this high-school love affair. She, too, it turns out, has some “reservations.”
“It wasn’t a very memorable film,” said Katherine, 15. “It’s probably one of the most gag-reflex-wrenching clichés I’ve seen in quite a while – but at least it was a sweetly done cliche.
“There are so many movies out there in the world that have two unlikely people fall in love and then be separated by tragedy, that you could build a tower higher than the Citadel with them. It’s been done to death and beyond.
“Right up until when Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore) told Landon (Shane West) that she had leukemia, I thought I was seeing another “She’s All That.” Practically the only differences up until that point between “A Walk to Remember” and “She’s All That” were that the girl was the daughter of a reverend, and she was a total and complete Christian. I don’t have anything at all against Christianity, but the producers went a bit overboard.
“As for Mandy Moore, her acting wasn’t bad, but she never changes. She’s always the same: “You don’t know me, and I’ll prove your assumptions wrong.” Teen pop stars aren’t very interesting these days.
“I would recommend this movie to teens and up. There are quite a few curse words, sexual innuendoes, and a bit of violence. But other than that, save this movie for a time when you have absolutely nothing else to do. Go see something like, “A Beautiful Mind.” That, at least, would be interesting.”
Dad and daughter are in agreement (today) – and everything’s right with the world.
END