A Walk to Remember

A Walk To Remember is a 2002 American romance film based on the 1999 romance
novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The film stars Shane West and Mandy Moore, was
directed by Adam Shankman, and produced by Denise Di Novi and Hunt Lowry for Warner
Bros. The novel, written by Sparks, is set in the 1950s while the film is set in 1998.
Plot
After a hazing incident goes wrong, popular but rebellious Landon Carter (Shane West) is
threatened with expulsion. His punishment is participation in various after-school activities,
including the spring musical, where he meets bookish, uninvasively religious Jamie Sullivan
(Mandy Moore), the only daughter of his mother's (Daryl Hannah) church's pastor, Reverend
Sullivan (Peter Coyote). Landon has difficulty learning his lines, so he asks Jamie for help.
In the following days, Landon continues trying to approach Jamie, this time as a romantic
interest, but she continues to reject him. The breaking point finally comes when a few of
Landon's friends play a malicious joke on Jamie, and Landon comes to her aid, renouncing his
friends in the process. Jamie finally accepts his advances as sincere and agrees to a date, with her
father's grudging permission. The two begin to fall in love, as Landon helps her accomplish
things on her wish list. Jamie's faith in him has Landon believing in his ability to be a better
person: he now wants to go to college and enter medical school where he once merely wanted to
flee his small town life.
However, in face of the depth of their relationship, Jamie reveals to Landon the secret
behind her father's protectiveness: she has leukemia. Later Jamie withdraws while Landon
despairs, even driving for hours to ask his rich, estranged cardiologist father to help Jamie. After
Landon comes to terms with the reality of Jamie's condition and in the face of his insistence in
being with her, the pair make up. Meanwhile, Landon continues to fulfill the wishes on Jamie's
list. Jamie is released from the hospital, revealing that Landon's father has paid for her to
continue receiving private health care at home. During a stargazing session, Landon proposes to
her, unwilling to let her time run out before her number one wish is fulfilled. They marry in the
church she had dreamed of, with all their friends in attendance and her father officiating the
service. The two of them live a short, happy life together until Jamie dies at the end of the
summer.
Four years later, Landon is visiting Jamie's father. Reverend Sullivan tells Landon that he
and Landon's mother are proud of him entering medical school, and that he is sure that Jamie
would have been proud of him too. Landon apologizes to Reverend Sullivan - Jamie never got to
witness her miracle, but Reverend Sullivan assures him that she did witness her miracle; it was
Landon himself. The movie ends with Landon walking on the docks, and saying that Jamie saved
his life and that their love is like the wind; he can't see it, but he can feel it.

Cast

Shane West as Landon Rollins Carter

Mandy Moore as Jamie Elizabeth

Sullivan
Peter Coyote as Reverend Hegbert
Sullivan
Daryl Hannah as Cynthia Carter
Lauren German as Belinda
Summary

Clayne Crawford as Dean

Al Thompson as Eric
Paz De La Huerta as Tracie
David Lee Smith as Dr. Carter
Jonathon Parks Jordan as Walker
Matt Lutz as Clay Gephardt

When a prank on a fellow high-school student goes wrong, popular but rebellious Landon
Carter (Shane West) is threatened with expulsion. His punishment is mandatory participation in
various after-school activities, such as tutoring disadvantaged children and performing in the
drama club's spring musical. At these functions he is forced to interact with quiet, bookish Jamie
Sullivan (Mandy Moore), a girl he has known for many years but to whom he has rarely ever
spoken. Their differing social statures leave them worlds apart, despite their close physical
proximity.
When Landon has trouble learning his lines, he asks Jamie for help. She agrees to help
him if he promises not to fall in love with her. Landon laughs off the strange remark, believing
Jamie to be the last person with whom he would ever fall in love. After all, Landon has access to
the prettiest and most popular girls in town; and between her shy demeanor and old-fashioned
wardrobe, Jamie doesn't exactly fall into that category.
Landon and Jamie begin practicing together at her house after school. The two form a
tentative friendship, and Landon learns that Jamie has a wish list of all the things she hopes to do
in her life, such as getting a tattoo and being in two places at once. One day, Jamie approaches
Landon at his locker, where he is hanging out with some of his friends. When Jamie asks Landon
if they are still on for practice that afternoon he smirks "In your dreams". His friends laugh and
Landon's smirk falters as Jamie's face fills with betrayal and embarrassment. That afternoon
Landon arrives at Jamie's house, hoping that Jamie will still agree to help him. But she refuses to
open the door. When she eventually does, she sarcastically remarks that they can be "secret
friends". She slams the door in his face when he agrees. Landon eventually learns the script by
himself.
During the play, Jamie astounds Landon and the entire audience with her beauty and
voice. Landon kisses Jamie during the play, which was not in the script, and Landon tries to get
close to Jamie, but she repeatedly rejects him. It is only after a mean joke played on Jamie by
Landon's friends that Jamie agrees to get to know Landon after he punches out Dean and shuns
Belinda (his friends who played the joke) and takes Jamie home. The two pursue a relationship.
He takes her out to dinner and dances with her, something he never did for anyone else. When he
discovers that Jamie has a wish list, he sets out to help her accomplish them. One memorable
date had Landon taking Jamie to the state line. He excitedly positions her on the line in just the
right way, and when Jamie asks him what he's doing he tells her "You're in two places at once".
Her face lights up with joy, as she realizes that Landon set out to make her impossible dreams
come true.

Jamie finally tells Landon that she has terminal leukemia and has stopped responding to
treatments. Landon gets upset at first. Jamie tells him the reason why she didn't tell him because
she was moving on with her life and using the time she left but then Landon happened and she
fell in love with him. Jamie starts to break down as she says to Landon "I do not need a reason to
be angry with God." and she flees.
Landon goes to his doctor father's house and asks him to help Jamie. His father freaks out
a bit and says that he needs to examine Jamie and know her medical history before he could do
anything. Landon leaves in a huff.
Landon and Jamie make up the next day. They hug and he tells her that he will be there
for her. Soon, word gets out about Jamie's illness. Eric, Landon's best friend comes and tells him
how sorry he is and that he didn't understand. Dean and Belinda both come and apologize.

Jamie's cancer gets worse and she collapses in her father's arms. He rushes her to the
hospital where he meets Landon. Landon doesn't leave Jamie's side until her father practically
has to pry him away. Jamie's father sits with Jamie and tells her that "If I've kept you too close,
it's because I wanted to keep you longer." Jamie tells him that she loves him and her father
breaks down.
The next day, Landon comes to the hospital and sees Jamie being wheeled out of there.
He asks what's going on. Jamie asks him to thank his father for her. Landon asks Jamie's father
what she means. He tells him that his father is going to pay for private homecare for Jamie.
Landon is stunned. Late that night, Landon knocks on his father's front door. His father answers.
Landon whispers "thank you." His father hugs him. With all the exhaustion and fear billowing
over, Landon breaks down in tears in his dad's arms.
Landon continues to fulfill various wishes on Jamie's list, such as building her a telescope
so she can see a comet. Through this process, Landon and Jamie learn more about the nature of
love. The movie ends with Jamie's death, but only after the couple are married in the same chapel
as was Jamie's deceased mother, the event that topped Jamie's wish list. Landon himself becomes
a better person through Jamie's memory, achieving the goals that he set out to do, like she did.
Four years later, Landon visits Jamie's father. It is obvious that Jamie helped him to focus
and become a better person. For example, he reveals he has finished college and been accepted to
medical school; prior to meeting her he had no plans for life after high school. He tells Jamie's
father that he is sorry he could not grant Jamie's wish to witness "a miracle" before she died. Her
father says "She did. It was you".

Soundtrack
1. "Dare You To Move" - Switchfoot
2. "Cry" - Mandy Moore

3. "Someday We'll Know" - Mandy Moore and Jonathan Foreman (Cover of New
Radicals)
4. "Dancin' In The Moonlight" - Toploader (Cover of King Harvest)
5. "Learning To Breathe" - Switchfoot
6. "Only Hope" - Mandy Moore as character Jamie Sullivan, with dialogue by Shane West
as character Landon Carter (Cover of Switchfoot)
7. "It's Gonna Be Love" - Mandy Moore
8. "You" - Switchfoot
9. "If You Believe" - Rachael Lampa
10. "No One" - Cold
11. "So What Does It All Mean?" - West, Gould, & Fitzgerald
12. "Mother, We Just Can't Get Enough" - New Radicals
13. "Cannonball" - The Breeders
14. "Friday On My Mind"
15. "Empty Spaces" - Fuel
16. "Only Hope" - Switchfoot

Movie Review
Tonight I left the theater angry. Not because, as you might expect, Id been forced to watch
yet another shallow teen movie starring another empty headed fad of the moment teen pop star, and
not because a low quality plastic key chain thrown by wacky morning D.J. stunt-boy Billy had
impacted with my head (which it had). Rather, I was in a twist because Id just seen something
special sabotaged by truly bad taste.
What Id seen was demure pop diva Many Moore acting her ass off in a fairly risky and
frankly challenging role while getting absolutely nothing for it. What Id seen was A Walk to
Remember, starring the aforementioned teen sensation and her partner, perennial WB reject Shane
West. Despite its somewhat suspect cast, A Walk To Remember is not the latest attempt to turn
Dawsons Creek into a mind numbing feature film. Instead, the film is based upon a novel by
Nicholas Sparks, a man whose work I have never read, nor do I intend to.
Set in North Carolina, this is the romantic story of wild child Landon Carter (West) and
devoted reverends daughter Jamie Sullivan (Moore). Landon lives a live of popularity, pleasure,
and excess, abusing and looking down on anyone outside and below his cool kid circle, including
Jamie. But chance and fate bring them together and Jamie teaches Landon there is a different way to
live and love. Im told this film is set in the 50s, but I think someone forgot to tell the director,
because there really is no evidence of it. Reading back over my description may cause nausea, but
the film itself is really much less sickly sweet than it sounds.
In fact, its first half is at times a little dark, as we watch Landons mistreatment and
misjudgment of Jamie based upon her religious faith and in his opinion, hopelessly un-cool attitude.
In this, the film is beautifully realistic and thoughtful; each characters progression brought along
smoothly and slowly, without rushing past all the sticky parts just to get to some silly kiss. True, at
times it feels as though something has been left out, as if the film jiggles around a bit. But, its hard
to notice while wrapped up in the wonderful world of Moore and West.
Mandy Moore really deserves some credit here. With the other pop divas and boy bands of
the world rushing to shove out ego-trips and glittery slut-fests, Moore actually had the courage to do
something serious. Forget glamour and dancing, A Walk To Remember chooses realism and heart
instead. Even the costumes are totally lacking in pop diva fair. Shes actually a reverends daughter,
not some slutty catholic schoolgirl wannabe.
If only the film had ended there, with a lovely first kiss after an hour of investment, struggle,
and sweetness. Instead, someone thought it would be funny to have Moore shout out I have
cancer! The line itself is so ridiculous when said that even Moore looks embarrassed saying it. For
the first time in recent memory I actually leaned forward in my seat and prayed for death. So totally
out of the blue was this moment, so out of keeping with the tone and tenor of the rest of the movie,
that I nearly managed to convince myself that in fact I had fallen asleep and somehow awakened in
the middle of the soon to be released Brittany Spears hack job. I suppose the writers felt that since
they had successfully opted out of the pretty girl teen-movie clich, they had better throw something
in to showcase their lack of originality and good sense. Im aware that the films director was
probably only following along with the book upon which the film is based. However, perhaps
having read the book, someone might have had the brains to toss it out the window and do a rewrite.
Maybe the movie got better again later. Who can tell? They lost me and pretty much
everyone else right then and there. The train derailed, the plot collapsed, and all the surprising talent
of Moore and West simply couldnt save it. Oh sure, theres still a lot of weepy sweetness to be had,
Moore and West keep right on acting their hearts out up till that inevitable and oft seen overdone
end. But Id been burned and didnt really want back in.