Film
Reviews: A
Walk To Remember
January 2003
 The acting of Mandy
Moore and Shane West in this movie
are truly impressive. The
chemistry is great. I love
this movie.
It’s a great
coming-of-age screenplay. It’s
another version of movies like Sweet November with Keanu Reeves
but while the characters are in their teens.
What makes it work is
how everything fits together. For
example, the dialogue of what is Mandy Moore’s number one thing to do
on her list: She wants to
get married in the church where her mother and father married.
Shane West eventually finds this out but the audience is kept
wondering and thankfully this is answered.
Another thing on her
list is to get a tattoo. The
scene in the car where West puts on a butterfly tattoo on her shoulder
is so sensual and the chemistry and acting of the two stars just sparks.
This same chemistry is shown in the play scene where she sings
and he watches enthralled and they kiss.
The audience is led to believe the kissing isn’t a part of the
script but it happens anyway.
Another example of
how the dialogue all fits is when West’s previous girlfriend tells him
that Moore chose him. It makes the characters of Moore and West very special.
Moore supports this when she tells West that he is her angel who
is with her during her illness.
There are other
details that work. The list makes sense when the audience finds out Moore has
cancer. There is also the
detail of the pink sweater where West buys Moore this new sweater
because his friends have been making fun of Moore’s same green sweater
she’s been wearing for years.
Another detail is
when Moore is singing in the church choir and West is in the
congregation watching her but with no feeling or attachment.
This changes in the play scene, when she sings and he is struck.
So the singing is a detail to show how these two characters are
transitioning from simply knowing each other throughout childhood to
truly knowing each other in love.
There is also the
detail of the cemetery, where Moore likes to go look at stars with her
homemade telescope. The cemetery setting foreshadows her death.
Also, West makes a telescope so that Moore can see a comet in the
sky, a comet that may never appear again.
This and all the others that West does proves his love for Moore
and thus Moore’s number one thing to do on her list is fulfilled.
The telescope shows how Moore is no longer looking at the stars herself,
but now has West with her, and he has shown many times his true love for
her which includes his making of the telescope. Also, the fact
they are seeing a comet, a flash of beautiful light briefly in the sky
shows how their love also is the same. But even with the
briefness, the detail of the description of the "wind" and how
it cannot be seen but felt is said in Moore's dialogue and is repeated
in West's narration in the end, of how he will always feel her love.
The movie
has forgiveness, faith, and true love.
It’s a great screenplay
that is made into a wonderful movie.
Watch this movie.
If nothing else, it will motivate you to get to work and start writing!
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