TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE… PLEASE STAY AWAY

Letters, love and high school drama. The perfect recipe for a good young adult movie. Or so we think.

This movie’s summary tells you that Lara Jean Covey is an introvert who is given the chance to make her
life interesting after a series of old letters addressed to her “past” crushes were sent out and one by
one, these letters impact her life in ways she never expected them to. Lara Jean wrote five of these
letters, addressed to Kenny from Camp, Peter Kavinsky, Lucas, John Ambrose McClaren and Josh
Sanderson, Josh being her most recent crush but also her sister’s boyfriend/ex-boyfriend. To avoid a
confrontation with Josh, Lara Jean then starts a fake relationship with Peter, who is in it to try to make
his ex-girlfriend Gen, jealous. This works but unfortunately for both Peter and Lara Jean, they develop
feelings for each other.

The entire 99 minutes of this movie was a trip down memory lane. Not because I related to the main
character nor the situation she was in but because of how familiar a lot of the tropes in the movie were
to me. It gave me the vibe that I was a 12 year-old girl again, sitting in front of my computer reading
fanfictions in 2010. Lara Jean is the epitome of a lead character in a story written by teenagers fueled by
puberty and daydreaming. The best example of this is the backbone of the plot, which is Lara Jean and
Peter Kavinsky’s ‘fake’ relationship. There are at least 5,000 other stories on Fanfiction.net about a boy
and a girl plotting to fake a relationship to get another person jealous or to avoid someone. Fake
relationship is not something new in any way. And unsupervised ski trips for teenagers? Also been there,
done that.

One thing that I did not like about the movie was Chris, Lara Jean’s best friend, taking a back seat. She
was a very likeable character that could have helped move the plot along a lot more smoothly. Her short
appearances in the movie and her sharp wit drew me to her and made me wish that she had her own
movie because she was so interesting. Another thing that bothers me was the aftermath of hot tub
scene which was the turning point of the movie because Lara Jean and Peter had just admit their
feelings for each other and started dating for real but because of a video of them supposedly doing the
dirty comes out, they break up. It was supposed to feel like the large conflict, the climax of the story but
it fell flat. A lot of time was dedicated to building the relationships surrounding Lara Jean that it forgot to
also build a conflict and then just added one on like an afterthought. The fact that the conflict was also
easily resolved was very saddening. The movie started strong but then once it got to the climax, it just
went extremely downhill and left viewers with so many unfulfilled feelings that made me wish I never
saw the movie in the first place so I didn’t have to feel this way.

I laude the movie for is its attention to detail. Filled with so many Easter eggs that will entice viewers to
re-watch the movie over and over again to see these small details like the table Lara and her father were
sitting at being the same table that she and Peter sit at when they get to know each other or Kitty’s
feminist necklace. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before features a cast that was so real and breathtaking
that you have no choice but to get sucked into falling in love with the characters. Janel Parrish, Lana
Condor and Anna Cathcart did not need to tell me twice that they were siblings. Their chemistry seemed
real, which made the movie seem real. And Noah Centineo with Israel Broussard are godsends. I have no
idea which Egyptian idol was worshipped in order to obtain such cast but it was worth it. Especially
Centineo and luckily, this movie came out before Sierra Burgess is a Loser. Acting aside, it was refreshing
to see a cast that featured diversity AND an Asian lead in a western film. After the success of Crazy Rich
Asians, it definitely felt right that we had this much representation in a movie.
I also have to give a huge pat on the back to the stylists and creative directors for this movie. There are
no words for how aesthetic every scene in the movie looked. With the clothing choices to the
background, everything looked pleasing to the way and added to the mood for all of the scenes, creating
an even more realistic feel to the movie.

The entire plot of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is so crazy and so unbelievable that it actually made
the movie quite enjoyable to watch. It provided a cliché nostalgia that made me feel bubbly and
wanting to have my boyfriend’s hand in my back pocket. (if only I wore pants with back pockets) It was
like seeing one of my daydreams come to life on screen. With all of that being said, I give this movie an
8/10.