At the start of the movie several problems get put in the spotlight. The first is the problematic behavior of Landon (Shane West), the protagonist of the story. A stereo-typical student. He belongs to the popular group, is a bad boy and mainly goes his own way. To add to it he does annoying things and expects the same from others. It is difficult to get a grip on him. His co-star is Jamie (the astonishing Mandy Moore). She is cut from a very different cloth, her strong character does not seem to fit perfectly with her way of functioning. Although she is very well aware of herself, her ambitions, wishes and ideals, she belongs to the group of outsiders. Not even a group, she's more a loner than anything else. She's bullied, she's not that easy-going and seems to have an inferiority complex.

The story is on one hand a romantic love story between star-crossed lovers, on the other hand there's the talk of drama. It's a nice combination. Both Shane West and Mandy Moore give excellent performances, with the latter being absolutely stunning in her role, and thanks to the early 00's indie-rock music the movie keeps getting momentum every time it threatens to slow down.

However, the extremely sweet sauce with which the film is doused makes you feel very patronized as the viewer. The religious aspect of the film feels forced, just to make a little group of the audience feel addressed, which is pretty unfortunate. The moral of the film is heart-warming and every viewer can learn one thing or another from the reflections and thoughts of Jamie.

The film starts off very strong. The school-setting, with themes as bullying, being a part of something and the behaviour of typical groups, have been worked out very well. Here and there the film even feels hip, but halfway the story gets bogged down in a somewhat dull drama. The schoollife gets pushed to the background and the paths that story took are put in the ground completely. As a result the film decays in monotony. It may even be that a heavy feeling overtakes the viwer, in the end there is no more airiness at all. From then on 'A Walk to Remember' doesn't shun heroism and starts to get very moralizing in certain scenes. Fortunaly, West and Moore show their best sides and their chemistry keeps splashing off the screen, it's credible and feels nothing short but very real.

Especially the performance of Mandy Moore is impressive, she received a number of awards for this role for a reason. She is absolutely incredible and probably deliverd her best performance of her career to this date. The good acting however, can't lift the main plot above the average. The score it initially received because of this review is a 5,9/10, however... it's a very nostalgic and still carries a very emotional attachment, no matter how many times I rewatch it.

_"I told you not to fall in love with me."_ (But that is exactly what I did..)
8,3/10