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A Walk to Remember

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For the book, see A Walk to Remember (novel).
A Walk to Remember
File:A Walk To Remember Poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAdam Shankman
Written byNicholas Sparks (novel)
Karen Janszen
Produced byDenise Di Novi
Hunt Lowry
StarringShane West
Mandy Moore
CinematographyJulio Macat
Edited byEmma E. Hickox
Music byMervyn Warren
Production
companies
Gaylord Films
Di Novi Pictures
Pandora Cinema
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
January 25, 2002 (2002-01-25)
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$11.8 million
Box office$47,494,916

A Walk to Remember is a 2002 American romance film based on the 1999 romance novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The movie stars Shane West and pop singer/actress Mandy Moore. The film 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 dangerous hazing incident goes wrong, popular but rebellious Landon Rollins Carter (Shane West) is threatened with expulsion. His punishment is mandatory participation in various after-school activities, including the drama club's spring musical, where he meets quiet, bookish Jamie Elizabeth Sullivan (Mandy Moore), the only daughter of their church's pastor, Hegbert Sullivan (Peter Coyote). Landon has difficulty learning his lines for the spring, so he asks Jamie to assist him. She decides to help him but under one condition: Landon must promise not to fall in love with her. He chuckles at the strange request, obviously doubting that he could ever fall in love with her.

Landon and Jamie begin practicing together at her house after school. As they spend more time together, a friendship begins to develop. Landon discovers Jamie’s wishlist of everything she aspires to accomplish in life, which includes befriending someone she doesn't like, getting a tattoo, being in two different places at once, and making a telescope. However, she doesn't tell him her number one wish. One day, Jamie approaches Landon when he is hanging out with some of his friends. When Jamie asks if they are still on for practice that afternoon, he smirks and replies, "In your dreams". His friends laugh, and Landon's smirk falters as Jamie feels betrayed and embarrassed. That afternoon, Landon arrives at Jamie's house in the hope that she will still agree to help him, but she refuses to let him in. Landon eventually learns the script by himself.

In the following days, Landon tries to get close to Jamie, but she repeatedly rejects him. The breaking point comes when a few of Landon's so-called friends play a malicious joke on Jamie (The prank consisted of a photoedit of Jamie's face onto an almost pornographic image and its distribution). She is about to cry in the middle of the cafeteria when Landon comes to her aid, punching one of his now ex-friends and apologizing to Jamie while comforting her (which she accepts), calling them "animals".

In his car at her house, he asks her out to dinner, but she replies that she is not allowed to date. He goes to her father in the church and asks him for permission. He begrudgingly agrees, and Landon takes her out to dinner. From that night forward, the two begin to fall in love, as Landon helps her accomplish things on her wish list. For example, he takes her to the state line, where she is "in two places at once," and gives her a temporary tattoo of a butterfly. He later has a star named after her, and learns that her number one wish is to marry in the church where her parents were married.

As their relationship grows, Jamie finally reveals to Landon that she has leukemia and has stopped responding to treatments. He is initially upset, but she says that the reason why she didn't tell him was because she was moving on with her life and using the time she had left. Jamie starts to break down as she says, "I do not need a reason to be angry with God" and runs away.

Eric (Al Thompson), who was Landon's best friend, but had also participated in the prank on Jamie, comes by and tells him how sorry he is and that he hadn't understood. Landon leaves dozens of flowers on Jamie's doorstep and asks her father to tell her that he's "not going anywhere". The pair makes up soon after.

Jamie's cancer gets worse until she collapses one day. Her father rushes her to the hospital where he meets Landon. The next day, Landon comes to the hospital and sees Jamie being wheeled out of the ward. He asks what's going on and she replies by asking him to thank his father for the help. Apparently Landon's father arranged to pay for private home care for Jamie.

Landon continues to fulfill various wishes on Jamie's list, including building her telescope. Her father, who now approves of him, helps out. After Jamie sees the comet through the telescope, Landon proposes and Jamie accepts. They marry in the church where her parents were married. With the wedding, Landon has completed everything on Jamie’s wishlist. She then dies months after their wedding.

Four years later, Landon visits Jamie's father and tells him he has finished college and has been accepted into medical school. He then gives Jamie's father a book that Jamie had given to him. He tells her father that he is sorry he could not grant Jamie's ambition to witness a miracle before she died. Her father replies that Jamie did see a miracle. "It was you," he says with a fatherly smile.

In the end, Landon remarks that Jamie not only saved his life — she taught him everything about life, hope and the long journey ahead. He ends his monologue by saying that Jamie and his love is like the wind. "I can't see it, but I can feel it." The film ends with Landon standing on a dock, staring into the sunset and smiling, as "Cry" (by Mandy Moore) plays into a fade.

Cast

Background and production

The inspiration for A Walk to Remember was Nicholas Sparks' sister, Danielle Sparks Lewis, who died of cancer in 2000. In a speech he gave after her death in Berlin, the author admits that "In many ways, Jamie Sullivan was my younger sister". The plot was inspired by her life; Danielle met a man who wanted to marry her, "even when he knew she was sick, even when he knew that she might not make it".[1] Both the book and movie are dedicated to Danielle Sparks Lewis.

This movie was filmed in Wilmington, North Carolina at the same time as Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood (2002) and the TV show Dawson's Creek were being filmed there. Many of the sets were from the TV show Dawson's Creek (1998) - particularly the school, hospital and Landon's home.[2] The total shooting time was only 39 days, despite Mandy Moore being able to only work 10 hours a day because she was a minor.[2] Daryl Hannah wore a brown wig, over pinc hair from another movie, that closest matched Shane West's hair in the movie when playing her character. Hannah also had collagen problems which made her lips swollen. By the end of the movie, however, the symptoms were less obvious.[3]

Release

Box office

The film opened at #3 at the U.S. box office raking in $12,177,488 USD in its opening weekend, behind Snow Dogs and Black Hawk Down.

Critical reception

The film was generally met with negative reviews by critics. Entertainment Weekly retitled the movie "A Walk to Forget"[4] and the average rating of 101 professional reviews as compiled by Rotten Tomatoes is 4.1 out of 10.[5] However, A Walk to Remember found a warm reception in the Christian community due to the film's moral values; as one reviewer approvingly noted, "The main character is portrayed as a Christian without being psychopathic or holier-than-thou".[6] Roger Ebert praised Mandy Moore and Shane West for their "quietly convincing" acting performances.[7] Even though not a critical success, it was a modest box-office hit, earning $41,281,092 in the United States alone,[8] and a sleeper hit in Asia. The total revenue generated worldwide was $47,494,916.

Awards

Year Ceremony Category Result
2002 MTV Movie Awards Breakthrough Female Performance won by Mandy Moore
2002 Teen Choice Awards Film — Choice Breakout Performance, Actress won by Mandy Moore
2002 Teen Choice Awards Film — Choice Chemistry (Moore/West) won
2002 Teen Choice Awards Film — Choice Actress, Drama/Action Adventure nominated for Mandy Moore (lost to Natalie Portman)

Moore beat out fellow pop star Britney Spears, who starred in Crossroads, to win two Teen Choice Awards. Moore was also nominated for "Film - Choice Actress, Drama/Action Adventure" but lost to Natalie Portman for her role in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.

At the MTV Movie Awards, Moore won the "Breakthrough Female Performance" for her role.

Soundtrack

The movie's soundtrack features five songs by Mandy Moore and others by acts Switchfoot, Rachael Lampa and many more.

The lead song "Cry" was originally released on Moore's second studio album Mandy Moore. The soundtrack also includes two versions of Switchfoot's song "Only Hope" including the version Moore sang in the film.

Mandy Moore's manager, Jon Leshay, the musical supervisor for A Walk to Remember, "instantly wanted" Switchfoot's music to be a vital part of the movie after hearing them. He later became Switchfoot's manager.[9] When they were approached to do the film, the band was unfamiliar with Moore or her music (despite her status as a pop star with several hits on the charts). Before their involvement with A Walk to Remember, Switchfoot was only recognized in their native San Diego and in Contemporary Christian music circles, but have since gained mainstream recognition, with a double platinum album, The Beautiful Letdown which included hits such as Meant to Live and Dare You to Move.

Complete Listing of Music in the Movie[10]

  1. "Cannonball" — The Breeders
  2. "So What Does It All Mean?" — Shane West, Gould and Fitzgerald
  3. "Empty Spaces" — Fuel
  4. "Lighthouse" — Mandy Moore
  5. "Friday on My Mind" — Noogie
  6. "Anything You Want" — Skycopter 9
  7. "Numb in Both Lips" — Soul Hooligan
  8. "Tapwater" — Onesidezero
  9. "If You Believe" — Rachael Lampa
  10. "No Mercy" — Extra Fancy
  11. "No One" — Cold
  12. "Enough" — Matthew Hager
  13. "Mother We Just Can't Get Enough" — New Radicals
  14. "Only Hope" — Mandy Moore
  15. "Get Ur Freak On" — Missy Elliott
  16. "Flood" — Jars of Clay
  17. "Dancin' in the Moonlight" — Toploader
  18. "Someday We'll Know" — Mandy Moore and Jonathan Foreman
  19. "Learning to Breathe" — Switchfoot
  20. "All Mixed Up" — 311
  21. "Dare You To Move" — Switchfoot
  22. "You" — Switchfoot
  23. "It's Gonna Be Love" — Mandy Moore
  24. "Only Hope" — Switchfoot
  25. "Cry" — Mandy Moore

Comparisons to novel

While there are many similarities to the novel by Nicholas Sparks, many changes were made. On his personal website, Sparks explains the decisions behind the differences. For example, he and the producer decided to update the setting from the 1950s to the 1990s, worrying that a movie set in the 50s would fail to draw teens. "To interest them," he writes, "we had to make the story more contemporary." To make the update believable, Landon's pranks and behavior are worse than they are in the novel; as Sparks notes, "the things that teen boys did in the 1950s to be considered a little 'rough' are different than what teen boys in the 1990s do to be considered 'rough.'"

Sparks and the producer also changed the play in which Landon and Jamie appear. In the novel, Hegbert wrote a Christmas play that illustrated how he once struggled as a father. However, due to time constraints, the sub-plot showing how he overcame his struggles could not be included in the movie. Sparks was concerned that "people who hadn't read the book would question whether Hegbert was a good father", adding that "because he is a good father and we didn't want that question to linger, we changed the play."[11]

A significant difference is that at the end of the novel, unlike the movie, it is ambiguous whether Jamie died even though during the 1950s cancer meant death. Sparks says that he had written the book knowing she would die, yet had "grown to love Jamie Sullivan", and so opted for "the solution that best described the exact feeling I had with regard to my sister at that point: namely, that I hoped she would live."[12]

References

  1. ^ Sparks (2000). "Background information on A Walk to Remember (from a speech given in Berlin, Germany for Heyne Verlag)". Retrieved 2007-07-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |first.= ignored (help)
  2. ^ a b Adam Shankman (2002). "A Walk to Remember" DVD Commentary.
  3. ^ Shankman, Adam. "Interview with Adam Shankman, Director of "A Walk to Remember" by Rebecca Murray and Fred Topel". Retrieved 2007-08-27.
  4. ^ Kepnes, Caroline (2002-07-12). "Reviews — A Walk to Remember". Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  5. ^ "Rotten Tomatoes — A Walk to Remember". Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  6. ^ Overstreet, Jeffrey (January 23, 2002). "A Walk to Remember" (Document). Christianity Today. {{cite document}}: Unknown parameter |archivedate= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |archiveurl= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |url= ignored (help)
  7. ^ Ebert, Roger (2002-01-25). "A Walk to Remember". Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  8. ^ "A Walk to Remember at Hollywood.com". Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  9. ^ "Switchfoot Featured in A Walk To Remember". 2002-01-21. Archived from the original on 2008-04-12. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  10. ^ End Credits, A Walk to Remember, 2002
  11. ^ Sparks, Nicholas. "Nicholas Sparks on the Movie Adaptation of A Walk to Remember". Archived from the original on 2008-04-17. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
  12. ^ Sparks, Nicholas. "FAQ on A Walk to Remember - Did Jamie Die?". Archived from the original on 2008-04-16. Retrieved 2007-07-12.
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