About the Movie

“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” was released in 2018 on Netflix. It is an American teen romance film directed by Susan Johnson, based on the 2014 novel of the same name by Jenny Han.

Trailer

Uploaded by Netflix

Synopsis

This Synopsis was taken from Rotten Tomatoes. (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/to_all_the_boys_ive_loved_before/)

What if all the crushes you ever had found out how you felt about them…all at once? Lara Jean Song Covey’s love life goes from imaginary to out of control when the love letters for every boy she’s ever loved-five in all– are mysteriously mailed out. From New York Times Bestselling Author, Jenny Han, the film adaption of the popular YA novel stars actress Lana Condor (Alita: Battle Angel, X-Men: Apocalypse) and Noah Centineo (Sierra Burgess Is A Loser, The Fosters).

The Review

My Overall Thoughts

Honestly, I didn’t go looking for this movie. I haven’t read the novel and unlike a lot of people  was not aware of it being made into a movie. However, I kept constantly stumbling across it on the internet and so when it was shoved in my face one too many times, I just went oh what the heck and watched. Turns out, that was a good decision on my part. This is a really fun, very cute, somewhat romantic feel good teen romance.

The Best Parts of the Movie

Realism

One of the best things about this movie was that in it, teenagers felt like teenagers. Let me explain what I mean, nowadays most popular teen shows and movies are waaay far removed from reality eg: Vampire Diaries, Teen Wolf, 13 Reasons Why, Insatiable, heck even The Kissing Booth felt weirdly larger than life. However, this is a movie that keeps you grounded to the point where you feel like, yeah, this could be a real teenager, a real person, a real story. My point is that the movie doesn’t try to make itself or its characters feel unreal or unbelievable.

Main Characters

The best part of this movie is definitely the main character Lara Jean and her family. They seem real and relatable and the viewer sympathises and emphasises with them easily. Lara Jean herself, very down to earth, easy to like and again her character actually feels she  could be a real person. She has clear flaws and foibles as well as good qualities and relatability. Her character story, background and reasons for her intentions are well established and developed. She doesn’t have the weirdly obsessive traits of heroines like Bella and Elena, or the strange “I’m sooooo quirky” wines of the girl from the Kissing Booth.

Other

The setting is kept simple to help you focus on the plot and characters more. The main characters are all pretty good actors and we get a believable performance from most of the rest of the cast. I really loved the dialogue and the character interaction in the film. It makes you like and support and learn more about them as well as advance the plot.

Things That Were Meh

Now let’s take a look at the parts of “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” that are what holds it back from being a truly great movie rather than just a fun romp.

The Main Male Romantic Lead

This movie has some great characters and a somewhat okayish plot. The main romantic male lead, Peter Kavinsky, is just too good to be true, the guy barely has any flaws and we do not learn enough about him to fully flesh out his character. Therefore he seems a little bit unreal in too good to be true kinda way, but I guess that must be sorta the point, to add wish fulfillment into the romance. The guy is so wonderful that you have to kind of such i n longing.

Side Characters

Both the setting and the side characters were bare bones in “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”, Lara Jeans best friend often being quite irritating. Also her neighbour Josh came off to me as being quite douchey. The film tries to set up a sort of lifelong friendship background for him and Lara Jean and it just flops and seems contrived because the idea is never reinforced afterwards in the film. Therefore whenever he tries to interfere in her life while banking on this preexisting friendship he comes off as very annoying guy.

My Final Thoughts

“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” is a fun movie, easy to watch and easy to enjoy. However, like Set it Up it is not something, in my opinion that will be a favourite or a classic. It’s just a pretty good movie.

Disclaimer:

This review is the Author’s opinion, the author does not claim anything stated here as fact. If you disagree with anything written in this article please do not hesitate to sound of in the comments down below. However, please keep in mind that the author is not liable for any information stated in this post. It is purely opinion.

The Movie “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and all of its materials are owned by Netflix. We are merely using some of them in this post to illustrate a point (fair use). If you wish for your materials to be taken down please contact us and we will remove them immediately.

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