A Walk To Remember | Movie Review

I hate watching the movie before I read a book. I like reading the book before the movie because I love being able to visualize the whole thing and see how close my thoughts were to the movie. Because of my mom’s college class, she needed to watch the movie A Walk to Remember and I agreed to watch the movie. Well, I watched it and I might have cried a little. Beware of the spoilers that might come out of my eye through the review!

Title: A Walk To Remember

Director: Adam Shankman

Distributed By: Warner Bros.

Released: January 25, 2002

Run Time: 102 Minutes

The story of two North Carolina teens, Landon Carter and Jamie Sullivan, who are thrown together after Landon gets into trouble and is made to do community service.

The Book That Inspire the Movie:

Title: A Walk to Remember

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Publisher: Warner Books

Released: October 1, 1999

Pages: 240 (Hardback)

Every April, when the wind blows from the sea and mingles with the scent of lilacs, Landon Carter remembers his last year at Beaufort High. It was 1958, and Landon had already dated a girl or two. He even swore that he had once been in love. Certainly the last person in town he thought he’d fall for was Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town’s Baptist minister. A quiet girl who always carried a Bible with her schoolbooks, Jamie seemed content living in a world apart from the other teens. She took care of her widowed father, rescued hurt animals, and helped out at the local orphanage. No boy had ever asked her out. Landon would never have dreamed of it. Then a twist of fate made Jamie his partner for the homecoming dance, and Landon Carter’s life would never be the same. Being with Jamie would show him the depths of the human heart and lead him to a decision so stunning it would send him irrevocably on the road to manhood…

Did You Know?—
That Jamie was named after Nicholas’s editor, Jamie Raab?
That Landon is the name of his third son?
That Nicholas Sparks recorded his own reading for the audio version of the novel?

Trailer:

The Cast:

• Shane West as Landon Carter
• Mandy Moore as Jamie Sullivan
• Peter Coyote as Reverend Hegbert Sullivan
• Daryl Hannah as Cynthia Carter
• Lauren German as Belinda
• Clayne Crawford as Dean
• Al Thompson as Eric
• Paz de la Huerta as Tracy
• David Lee Smith as Dr. Carter
• Jonathan Parks Jordan as Walker
• Matt Lutz as Clay Gephardt

My Review:

Why does Nicholas Sparks have to include some sort of medical condition in all of his books? In this case, it happens to be leukemia and that happens to be the one cancer that happens to make me loose it. When I found out that Jamie had leukemia and I freaking lost it. Jamie was one of my favorite characters with all of her jokes about Landon not falling in love with her and her powerful desire. She made such a big change in Landon’s life and I can’t help but love that.

I don’t know why but I always enjoy movies more when they happen in North Carolina. It might be because I live in North Carolina but I love them so much more. I feel like I have a personal connection to the movie and I feel like I need to go and check out that town or location after watching it.

The whole idea was beautiful and it made me want to go and pick up the book. *Side note – I literally just walked over to the bookshelf and see if I had the book and just so happen don’t have it :(* The fact that you basically get to watch Landon grow up and change from this really irresponsible teenage guy into this guy who cares for the people around him was beautifully gone. The way that Landon handled the situation when his friends made the ‘Virgin Mary’ posters with Jamie’s face was the way that I would want any guy to handle it. I could have swore that Landon was going to go and kiss her right in front of the whole school. 

The cast did such a great job with playing the character that they could have been a real person. The cast played their roles like they created them all themselves and they had personal connections to their role. More than likely the cast never forced someone to jump off something and almost kill them but they might have known people treated like Jamie or been a Jamie in high school. When Jamie and Landon got married, I felt like I was there and I started to cry because he was the only person in the world who had known her #1 on her bucket list. Then Jamie had to die and it broke my heart.

Even though I loved the relationship between Jamie and Landon, my favorite relationship had to be between Landon and Jamie’s dad. Jamie’s dad is some high powered preacher and he wanted the best for Jamie after the death of her mother. Her dad wanted nothing to do with Landon because he thought that Landon was bad news but after watching him with Jamie in the hospital, you could see the change in Jamie’s dad. He learned that Landon really did love her and that he would never do anything to hurt her (which made me cry). I love the fact that Jamie’s dad goes and helps Landon with the telescope because they both wanted Jamie to live her life to the fullest because neither of them knew for sure when it would be over. 

For a movie from 2002, I was shocked that I enjoyed it so much. There is a few things that I didn’t enjoy so I would have to give the movie a 4 out of 5 stars. The movie was shockingly clear and it didn’t feel like it was from 2002 but that might have been the 4k TV and the Blu-Ray player but I really enjoyed watching it. The only thing that told me that it was from 2002 was the way they dressed and the cars they drove. They were horrendous.

If you like Nicholas Sparks movies this is another one to add to your collection. If you are looking for a romantic movie to curl up and watch with someone, this is your movie. If you are looking a good movie to watch, this is your movie. Now, if you don’t like those chessy movies where you know that two characters are going to end up together from the first time you see them together, you should NOT go and watch this movie. You should go and find another movie to watch.

Have you watched this movie? What where your thoughts about it? What is your favorite Nicholas Sparks movie? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Happy Reading,