Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay While I would not say that I’m obsessed with romantic comedies, I find myself thoroughly sucked into many of them spanning decades of cinema history. From some of the old classics like Frank Capra’s Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Woody Allen’s Annie Hall to some more modern takes on the classic “love story” (Crazy Rich Asians, (500) Days of Summer, and When Harry Met Sally… come to mind), there have been some great “rom-coms” that I have had the pleasure to come across in my twenty-four years on this planet.
One film that I have a specific memory of discovering was the 2018 Netflix romantic-comedy To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, based on the 2014 best-selling young adult novel of the same name by Korean-American author Jenny Han. In the wake of the release of the third film in this Netflix rom-com series and since today is Valentine’s Day, I thought that there would never be a better excuse to discuss and rank the three To All the Boys films. So, without further ado…LET’S GET STARTED! To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (2018) I saw this movie around the time that I was starting my first full-time job (thus entering the “real world,” if there is such a thing), and it struck a chord with me as an excuse to self-reflect on my own high school experience (not that I mistakenly sent love letters to former crushes 😊). Perhaps it came at just the right time in my life, but I thoroughly enjoyed my first viewing of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Without question, the best thing about this film (and all three of them, really) is the chemistry among the cast. The burgeoning love story between Lara Jean and Peter is incredibly heightened by the interplay between the actors that portray these characters: Lana Condor and Noah Centineo, respectively. In fact, Condor has great chemistry with pretty much all of the characters in the film, from her sisters Margot (Janel Parrish) and Kitty (Anna Cathcart) to her father Dan (John Corbett) and her best friend Christine (Madeleine Arthur). Lara Jean specifically as a protagonist is also very endearing. No doubt she is a flawed character; many of the things that she says and does are questionable, if not downright objectionable. Yet Condor radiates an intense innocence that is so likeable and thus makes many of her less-than-sensible decisions invoke sympathy with the audience. For me, any film whose protagonist is unempathetic suffers as a result. That is certainly not the case with To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Furthermore, while the film certainly relies on teen rom-com clichés, its premise provides just enough of a twist on the classic teen love story. The use of Lara Jean’s five private love letters as the catalyst for the film’s conflict is just interesting enough to be both funny and melodramatic at the same time. While other films of this caliber tell the “we were meant to be together” story just as well, this film does it without assuming the end will be what it is. In fact, upon re-watching the movie this week, I was only convinced more of this fact. It is not until towards the end of the second act that Peter’s mutual feelings for Lara Jean are overtly foreshadowed in spite of every aspect of this movie formula dictating that such a reveal happen much earlier in the story. For that, I respect both the writing and acting. Overall, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is a fun watch. It may not be the best romantic comedy ever made, but it certainly stands on its own and (in my humble opinion) deserves the praise it gets these days. To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020) Now that the final film in the To All the Boys trilogy is out, I have seen and heard many people refer to its second installment as the weakest of the series. Surely, I understand why some many think this. The first film is fresher, while the third film is more thematically rich. But, I think that To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You retains the entertainment factor of the first without losing the charm that made its predecessor so beloved. In an effort to avoid sounding repetitive, I want to focus more on the negative aspects of this film. While the chemistry among the cast is still here, I found that the creative team this time around concluded that the focus should be more on Lara Jean and Peter’s relationship at the expense of the time spent between Lara Jean and her family and friends that made for some of the funniest and most emotional moments of the first film. Certainly, I love Condor and Centineo’s dynamic, but I missed the amount of her moments with other characters that brought some emotional and situational diversity to the first film. The other major setback of this film in my mind is the “John Ambrose” plotline. I mean no disrespect to the character, as Jordan Fisher does a great job playing the character and his chemistry with Lara Jean in To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You is equally (if not more) intense as what she has with Peter. My critique has more to do with John Ambrose’s use in the story as the excuse for the film to exist. Overall, the film leans a bit too much into melodrama with the tension between Lara Jean, Peter, and John Ambrose due to decisions made by all three characters that just seemed a little too contrived. And at the end, how their love triangle is “resolved” felt a bit empty. On the one hand, John Ambrose is actually left out in the cold while Peter just happens to show up to reconcile his differences with Lara Jean. For a film series that wants to offer a twist on the “fairy tale” notion of true love, it sure did not do that here. If anything, I found the resolution of Lara Jean’s bad blood with her former best friend Genevieve (Emilija Baranac) to be more satisfying. All that being said, however, To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You was still a thoroughly enjoyable continuation of Lara Jean’s world. After re-watching the first two films in the series this week, I was looking forward to see how the story wrapped up with the release of the third film in the trilogy. To All the Boys: Always and Forever (2021) To be clear, I did not hate watching To All the Boys: Always and Forever. Much of it was actually really fun, notably Lara Jean’s interplay with Christine and her younger sister Kitty. As with the second film, I found myself enjoying Condor’s scenes with almost every other character except Peter. Also, the very end of the movie was satisfying because it felt like a grounded take on how people in the real-world handle long-distance relationships: with some semblance of grace and maturity not often found in adults, let alone teenagers on the cusp of adulthood. But I think that To All the Boys: Always and Forever took way too long to get to its satisfying ending and the drama between Lara Jean and Peter that filled everything in between was ultimately not executed well enough to keep my full attention. Now I get why many people seem to prefer this film over the trilogy’s second installment. The conflict here is far less contrived than it was in To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You. The dilemma of choosing a path for one’s future without utterly ruining their current relationships is something that many people face in one form or another as they begin their young adulthood years. In that sense, To All the Boys: Always and Forever succeeds where its predecessor does not in feeling less forced as a story. On the other hand, I kind of prefer the melodramatic approach of To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You. If anything, I found Lara Jean and Peter way too toned down as characters in the third film. It seemed like someone else wrote this movie and decided to go all “DCEU-dark” on the dialogue and tone among these characters. Whereas the first two films had an uplifting effervescence about them, To All the Boys: Always and Forever feels tonally off for no other reason than to break up Lara Jean and Peter (only to have them make up about twenty minutes later because Peter realizes what a jerk he’s being). Just like with the second film, there were certainly some great aspects of To All the Boys: Always and Forever. For one thing, I found Condor’s portrayal of Lara Jean’s inner conflict about college to feel natural. The character’s stick-to-it-iveness was refreshing compared to some other teen romance films that take agency away from the female character for no sensible reason of storytelling. Furthermore, Noah Centineo showed off some of his acting chops in the scene with his distant father (Henry Thomas) enough to convince me that he may have a career outside of Netflix-original rom-coms. Overall, though, I found To All the Boys: Always and Forever less than the sum of its parts. Even though its very end was a satisfying-enough conclusion, I was not engaged enough all the way through to say that I found it to be any better than the first two films in the series. With all that being said, here is my ranking of Netflix’s To All the Boys trilogy:
What are your thoughts on this teen rom-com trilogy? What are some great romantic comedies that you would recommend for others to watch? What opinions of mine do you find absolutely ridiculous? Let me know in the comments below. Until next time, this has been… Yours Truly, Amateur Analyst
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Austin McManusI have no academic or professional background in film production or criticism; I simply love watching and talking about movies. Archives
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