Information: Year 2002

Taglines: It all comes down to who’s by your side/ She didn’t belong, She was misunderstood, and she would change him forever.

Spoken Languages: English, French (dubbed in Québec)

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French

Audio: Dolby Digital

Ratings: Rated PG-13 for thematic elements, language and some sensual material.

THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS!!!

A Walk to Remember remains my all time favorite movie. Sure the plot holds a common thematic element to many other movies- the perfect couple who gets separated by death. Sure it is a typical cliché in many love stories: The cool guy and the nerdish girl start going out. But what, according to me really really differentiates this movie from any other movie is the pure undiluted charm and chemistry between the actors.

Portrayed by Shane West and Mandy Moore, Landon and Jamie were worlds apart, and despite having been in the same school since forever, they never even thought they would be friends. All changes when Ladnon’s detention lands him in a school play and he asks Jamie for help. My completely favorite line in the movie is when Jamie tells Landon that she will help him- IF he promises not to fall in love with her. The true irony of the story is that Landon does fall in love with her. I was particularly touched by the idea of true love changing someone for the better: Landon changed from bad boy to a compassionate, sensitive person and Jamie started to open up and interact more with other people.

I was utterly delighted by the way emotional scenes were depicted in the movie. Adam Shankman did a marvelous job at directing the perfect setting and atmosphere behind the particularly emotional and crying scenes. I personally think they did a wonderful job with the highly emotional, highly intense scenes- it was delicate and sad without being over cheesy or overly sob-sob. Actually, I got to admit that I loved the way the movie was done, it was sad and touching without going overboard. The ending was sad, with Jamie’s death but for me, there was no sense of loss or depression by the end of the movie. I think that the scene when Landon lives up to Jamie’s “Love is like the wind, you can’t see it but you feel it” (as he holds his head to the wind and smiles), is a very very very well placed scene. This is what prevented me from feeling that I wasted two hours watching a movie with a depressing end.

The movie I was thinking about while watching it was Love Story. The concepts of A Walk to Remember and Love Story both run the same- couple in love and girl dies of cancer but when I watched Love Story, by the end of the movie all I felt was a strong sense of depression and loss, along with the feeling that I’ve been wasting my time. I mean, why show us everything between the sweet relationship of the girl and the boy when in the end, the girl dies and her only legacy remains that ‘love means never having to say you’re sorry’? In pure opposition, I personally believe that the ending of Walk to Remember was the most perfect ending I could imagine. I especially loved the part where the audience gets to feel good (despite Jamie’s death) because in the end, Landon learns that he was Jamie’s ‘miracle’.

The acting, according to me was quite simply outstanding! Mandy Moore and Shane West managed to build up the exact right amount of chemistry between their two characters. You end up feeling involved, crying at some parts, laughing at others. That is where I believe, does the magic of A Walk to Remember starts.

One last note- I’ve read the book and I’m and avid Nicholas Sparks fan. But I wouldn’t compare the book and the movie. They are quite different, there have been numerous changes but both of them are outstanding- in their own way!

DVD Extras:

SPECIAL FEATURES:

- Cast and Crew

- Mandy Moore music video “Cry”

- Theatrical Trailer

- Commentary: Adam Shankman, Shane West and Mandy Moore. There was nothing really important about this commentary feature but it was light and entertaining. I particularly loved that extra feature because it contains lots of fun trivia about the crew and a scene-by-scene appreciation of the way the actors view A Walk to Remember:

1st Scene: INITIATING THE NEW KID: the whole crew loved shooting the scene, and described the initiation site as ‘creepy’ but ‘beautiful’

2ND scene: THE ACCIDENT: described the diving scene as “freezing”

3rd scene: THOSE IN NEED: Daryl Hannah was apparently wearing a brown wig because her hair was dyed pink for another movie. Mandy Moore also admits that she was sick on the day that she shoot her solo in church, a scene that consequently shaped her whole character as Jamie Sullivan.

4th scene: APPROPRIATE PUNISHMENT: The actors and Director revealed why they chose the clothes for this scene

5th scene: WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK: Mandy Moore says that was really trying to help the little girl with her algebra in the tutoring scene. In addition, Shane West reveals that the bus scene was apparently very difficult because it was around 100 degrees in the bus and they kept driving around in the same neighborhood.

6th scene: HIS ACT HER LIST: This was apparently the a most hilarious scene for Mandy Moore to shoot and the actors point out how she burst out laughing just before she got out of camera range during the rehearsals.

7th Scene: LEARNING LINES: Mandy Moore said that hated the outfit she wore when Shane West asked her for help. The Director also reveals that the pictures of Mandy Moore on the mantle piece were her real childhood and high school pictures.

8th scene: READ MY MIND: The scene in the cemetery was the very first scene they shoot. Mandy explains how and why the rejection scene with Landon was a very hard scene for her. She laughingly says how she loved slamming the door in Landon’s face because he was ‘so mean’.

9th scene: PUSHES AND SHOVES: There was an actual photo shoot for the yearbook. Moore also apparently burst into tears after filming the part when she crosses Landon in the corridor. This was her last day on set.

10th scene: DID IT HURT: Landon’s visit to Clay Gephard at the hospital was the very last scene they shot. Shane West reveals how he was completely depressed at that point because that was his last day of shooting.

11th scene: OPENING NIGHT: Opening Night was the one day Mandy Moore actually could wear makeup and got to dress up. She loved the dress she wore so much that she wanted to keep it.

12th scene: ONLY HOPE: Mandy Moore felt strange singing her song as Jamie, and performing it for the movie, and not in her own way.

13th scene: WHO’S SCARED NOW: The scene in the cafeteria was Mandy’s audition scene.

14th scene: NEED TO FORGIVE: Shane West actually bought the red car he drove in the movie.

15th scene: THE PICTURES OF SPITE: The bikini picture of photo-shopped Jamie was originally a naked picture but they changed the flyer in Belinda’s hand to achieve the 13PG ratings. The other flyers on the tables showed a naked person instead.

16th scene: DATING AND DANCING: Mandy Moore really ate four slices of peanut butter pie in order to shoot the restaurant scene.

17th scene: TWO FROM HER LIST: The straddling the Stateline scene was the scene which made the Adam Shankman want to do the movie. He reveals that this is because he would personally have loved it if someone had done this for him.

18th scene: IN LOVE: Shane West had a lot to drink just before shooting this scene. It also took him a lot of time for him to get the tattoo off. His co-actors tease him about the glazed look in his eyes.

19th scene: HER #1: Mandy Moore kept moving her eyes in order to emphasize eye contact between Jamie and Landon.

20th scene: ‘I CAN DO THAT’: This was the first day of shooting. Mandy More’s first impression of Shane West was ‘Who’s this punk Shane West that I’m in a film with?’

21st scene: JAMIE’S CONFESSION: The scene when Landon and his mother talk early morning was apparently an extremely cold day and Shane West kept remaining hunched throughout the scene to remain warm.

22nd scene: NOT GOING ANYWHERE: In order to really shed tears when Jamie tells Landon that she had leukemia, the Director told Mandy to think about her last day on set. She was so upset that she really cried real tears during this scene.

23rd: BACK IN STEP: This was also a hard scene for the two lead actors because of the intensity of the scene in general.

24th: FATHER AND DAUGHTER: Mandy reveals that her own dad was particularly affected by the scene when Jamie’s dad talks to Jamie while she lay sick and dying on the hospital bed. Moore was also very much affected by the performance of Peter Coyote as an anguished father.

25th: LOVE IS: Mandy Moore really wants the biblical passage on love to be read on her wedding day.

26th: FATHER AND SON: The nurse who wheeled Mandy Moore out was a cameo of the Director, Adam Shankman.

27th: #1 FOR REAL: Shane and Mandy made up their middle names for the wedding on the spot while filming the wedding.

28th: HER MIRACLE: Peter Coyote’s line ‘It was you’ was in a different take but they played it over his original line in this scene.

Other DVD extras features a commentary with Nicholas Sparks and Karen Janszen. This too was nice and informative, centering mainly over the reasons behind the differences between the book and the movie, and the way that Nicholas Sparks dealt with it .

Most certainly a movie to watch!