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Walk To Remember, A
Warner Bros. // PG // July 9, 2002
List Price: $26.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
The music industry has seen enormous losses in the past few years, due to varying elements - everything from internet copying to simply a lack of anything new. Some of the teen pop singers seem to realized that their musical success may not last forever, and have, at least for the moment, jumped ship into acting. Mandy Moore, whose recent CD smartly added exotic textures, solid instrumentals and other interesting aspects into familiar teen love songs, easily seems to be singer in her genre with the most range and potential as an actress. While her first performance in "Princess Diaries" didn't give her much of an opportunity, her first starring performance here strongly suggests that she could develop into an even better actress.
Moore stars here as Jamie Sullivan, a preacher's daughter who may be an outsider, but still shows self-confidence, sings in the choir and does volunteer work. Landon Carter (Shane West) is a nice person underneath, but he's apparently forgotten about that side when he started hanging out with the wrong crowd - his participation in a terrible dare turns tragic and a fellow student - who just wanted to fit in - is severely injured.
As punishment, Landon is forced to do community service and join the drama club to see if he can get along with people who do more positive things. Both have him in close contact with Jamie, who he wouldn't want to be seen with otherwise. When memorizing lines for the play becomes a bit much for him, he enlists the help of Jamie. No points for guessing whether or not he starts to find himself falling for her and, just maybe, become a better person as a result.
For me, the enjoyment of the movie was often carried by the Moore character. It was refreshing to see an instance where, when Landon dismisses her in front of his popular friends, that she doesn't run away bawling. Instead, Moore gives a perfect look of understanding the situation and of disapointment and strolls off, still confident in who she is. The actress carries herself wonderfully and offers some nice subtle moments, as well as some sincere emotion. Her and the West character gradually gain affection for each other and, while their characters aren't exceptionally developed, their relationship moves along nicely and the two leads have solid chemistry.
I will admit to usually disliking this kind of film. "A Walk To Remember" does have some (but not many) of the teen movie cliches and nearly becomes melodramatic on occasion, but it has a subtle nature to it that I found very pleasant. Things do become a bit more heavily dramatic in the second half with a plot twist for one of the main characters, but the filmmakers keep things dry, honest and genuine - the filmmakers don't go for the big moments and kept from trying to force tears. As a result, I found the dramatic scenes very effective.
Viewers are either going to buy into "A Walk To Remember" or completely not; personally, I found myself unexpectedly charmed by the movie. While not groundbreaking, I did think it was still remarkable in the way that it portrayed a teenage relationship, which are rarely shown in such a thoughtful and sincere manner. "A Walk To Remember" is sweet and moving without being manipulative - I'll freely admit to getting misty-eyed on several occasions throughout this very enjoyable movie.
The DVD
VIDEO: Warner Brothers offers "A Walk To Remember" in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. While not flawless, this is a very enjoyable presentation that offers superb image quality. An attractively filmed picture with nice compositions and fine lighting, the picture appears sharp and well-defined throughout the majority of the film, with the exception of a couple of scenes that appeared slightly softer.
The picture did show a few minor flaws here and there, but the problems really didn't affect the viewing experience very much. A couple of tiny specks appeared on the print, but certainly no major wear was spotted. Slight edge enhancement was noticed in a couple of spots, but no pixelation or other flaws were seen. The film's color palette was natural and accurate, but a little on the subdued side. Overall, a very enjoyable offering from Warner.
A poorly placed layer change occurs at 48:49, right in the middle of a scene.
SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Warner Brothers. While this is mostly a dialogue-driven drama, the music and some ambient sounds are offered nicely by the surrounds on occasion. On a note not related to the audio quality, I did enjoy the soundtrack - while this film does have a lot of popular tunes that play often through the movie, the songs thankfully didn't underline the emotions of the scene. As for audio quality, it was very good throughout the movie, as the songs sounded full and rich, while dialogue sounded clear and crisp.
MENUS: The menus are static, but a piece of the score plays behind it.
EXTRAS:
Commentaries: There are two commentary tracks included on the DVD: the first is from director Adam Shankman and stars Mandy Moore and Shane West. All three have been recorded together for this very enjoyable (and occasionally very funny) track. The three energetically chat about what it was like to work on the film, which had a short shooting schedule that involved a few scenes having to have to be shot on-the-run. They also often joke about some of the little continuity errors that can occasionally be found throughout the film and share some stories from the set (most of the sets were actually "Dawson's Creek" sets). Unfortunately, there is an early moment in the commentary where the director discusses the fact there was lots of deleted footage, but that material didn't end up in the DVD.
The second commentary is from author Nicholas Sparks and screenwriter Karen Janszen, who adapted the novel by Sparks. Their commentary is a bit more dry than the other track, but both participants discuss their thoughts about translating the novel to the screen intelligently and enjoyably, balancing their chat between talking about material that wasn't used in the film, themes and characters in the picture and how the novel was translated into the screenplay. A few little pauses of silence throughout, but a very fine commentary. I hope more DVDs will provide commentary from the novelist when a film is adapted from a book.
Also: Mandy Moore's music video for "Cry" and the film's theatrical trailer, which is a bit cheesy when the movie isn't.
Final Thoughts: As I mentioned before, viewers are either going to buy into "A Walk To Remember" or won't. Personally, I liked the film and found found it sweet, touching and well-acted. Warner Brothers has produced a terrific DVD edition with good audio and video, along with very fine supplements. Recommended.
The music industry has seen enormous losses in the past few years, due to varying elements - everything from internet copying to simply a lack of anything new. Some of the teen pop singers seem to realized that their musical success may not last forever, and have, at least for the moment, jumped ship into acting. Mandy Moore, whose recent CD smartly added exotic textures, solid instrumentals and other interesting aspects into familiar teen love songs, easily seems to be singer in her genre with the most range and potential as an actress. While her first performance in "Princess Diaries" didn't give her much of an opportunity, her first starring performance here strongly suggests that she could develop into an even better actress.
Moore stars here as Jamie Sullivan, a preacher's daughter who may be an outsider, but still shows self-confidence, sings in the choir and does volunteer work. Landon Carter (Shane West) is a nice person underneath, but he's apparently forgotten about that side when he started hanging out with the wrong crowd - his participation in a terrible dare turns tragic and a fellow student - who just wanted to fit in - is severely injured.
As punishment, Landon is forced to do community service and join the drama club to see if he can get along with people who do more positive things. Both have him in close contact with Jamie, who he wouldn't want to be seen with otherwise. When memorizing lines for the play becomes a bit much for him, he enlists the help of Jamie. No points for guessing whether or not he starts to find himself falling for her and, just maybe, become a better person as a result.
For me, the enjoyment of the movie was often carried by the Moore character. It was refreshing to see an instance where, when Landon dismisses her in front of his popular friends, that she doesn't run away bawling. Instead, Moore gives a perfect look of understanding the situation and of disapointment and strolls off, still confident in who she is. The actress carries herself wonderfully and offers some nice subtle moments, as well as some sincere emotion. Her and the West character gradually gain affection for each other and, while their characters aren't exceptionally developed, their relationship moves along nicely and the two leads have solid chemistry.
I will admit to usually disliking this kind of film. "A Walk To Remember" does have some (but not many) of the teen movie cliches and nearly becomes melodramatic on occasion, but it has a subtle nature to it that I found very pleasant. Things do become a bit more heavily dramatic in the second half with a plot twist for one of the main characters, but the filmmakers keep things dry, honest and genuine - the filmmakers don't go for the big moments and kept from trying to force tears. As a result, I found the dramatic scenes very effective.
Viewers are either going to buy into "A Walk To Remember" or completely not; personally, I found myself unexpectedly charmed by the movie. While not groundbreaking, I did think it was still remarkable in the way that it portrayed a teenage relationship, which are rarely shown in such a thoughtful and sincere manner. "A Walk To Remember" is sweet and moving without being manipulative - I'll freely admit to getting misty-eyed on several occasions throughout this very enjoyable movie.
The DVD
VIDEO: Warner Brothers offers "A Walk To Remember" in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. While not flawless, this is a very enjoyable presentation that offers superb image quality. An attractively filmed picture with nice compositions and fine lighting, the picture appears sharp and well-defined throughout the majority of the film, with the exception of a couple of scenes that appeared slightly softer.
The picture did show a few minor flaws here and there, but the problems really didn't affect the viewing experience very much. A couple of tiny specks appeared on the print, but certainly no major wear was spotted. Slight edge enhancement was noticed in a couple of spots, but no pixelation or other flaws were seen. The film's color palette was natural and accurate, but a little on the subdued side. Overall, a very enjoyable offering from Warner.
A poorly placed layer change occurs at 48:49, right in the middle of a scene.
SOUND: The film is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 by Warner Brothers. While this is mostly a dialogue-driven drama, the music and some ambient sounds are offered nicely by the surrounds on occasion. On a note not related to the audio quality, I did enjoy the soundtrack - while this film does have a lot of popular tunes that play often through the movie, the songs thankfully didn't underline the emotions of the scene. As for audio quality, it was very good throughout the movie, as the songs sounded full and rich, while dialogue sounded clear and crisp.
MENUS: The menus are static, but a piece of the score plays behind it.
EXTRAS:
Commentaries: There are two commentary tracks included on the DVD: the first is from director Adam Shankman and stars Mandy Moore and Shane West. All three have been recorded together for this very enjoyable (and occasionally very funny) track. The three energetically chat about what it was like to work on the film, which had a short shooting schedule that involved a few scenes having to have to be shot on-the-run. They also often joke about some of the little continuity errors that can occasionally be found throughout the film and share some stories from the set (most of the sets were actually "Dawson's Creek" sets). Unfortunately, there is an early moment in the commentary where the director discusses the fact there was lots of deleted footage, but that material didn't end up in the DVD.
The second commentary is from author Nicholas Sparks and screenwriter Karen Janszen, who adapted the novel by Sparks. Their commentary is a bit more dry than the other track, but both participants discuss their thoughts about translating the novel to the screen intelligently and enjoyably, balancing their chat between talking about material that wasn't used in the film, themes and characters in the picture and how the novel was translated into the screenplay. A few little pauses of silence throughout, but a very fine commentary. I hope more DVDs will provide commentary from the novelist when a film is adapted from a book.
Also: Mandy Moore's music video for "Cry" and the film's theatrical trailer, which is a bit cheesy when the movie isn't.
Final Thoughts: As I mentioned before, viewers are either going to buy into "A Walk To Remember" or won't. Personally, I liked the film and found found it sweet, touching and well-acted. Warner Brothers has produced a terrific DVD edition with good audio and video, along with very fine supplements. Recommended.
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