DIRECTED BY: Susan Johnson
STARRING: Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, Israel Broussard, Trezzo Mahoro, King Bach, Joey Pacheco, Janel Parrish, Anna Cathcart, John Corbett, Madeleine Arthur, Emilija Baranac, Kelcey Mawema and Jordan Burtchett
SYNOPSIS
A teenage girl’s secret love letters are exposed and wreak havoc on her love life.
Lara Jean writes love letters to all her past crushes, letters meant for her eyes only. One day, the letters are sent out to her previous five loves, and her life is thrown into chaos when they confront her one by one.
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is the film adaptation of the popular young-adult romance novel by Jenny Han, and is also Susan Johnson’s directorial followup to Carrie Pilby. We follow Lara Jean Covey, a teenager that is caught up in romantic novels, the passion of it all and yet is not ready to try it in real life. Instead, she keeps hold of five letters she’s written to the boys she’s had crushes on inside a special box, mainly for her own purpose rather than them as a reminder of how powerful her emotions can be. One day however, her five letters are mysteriously mailed to the five boys, one (Peter) that is dating her former best friend and the other (Josh) is a long-time friend and ex-boyfriend of her older sister. Peter approaches Lara Jean and suggests a fake relationship to make his recent ex jealous and Lara Jean agrees in order to avoid addressing her feelings in the letter to Josh.
From the initial premise of the letters being exposed, the film doesn’t dwell much on the mystery of how the letters got out (it’s apparent almost instantly as the audience is clued in but Lara Jean is not though she’s given a plausible red herring of how this moment could’ve happened), nor too long on how humiliating it is for her, as slowly and surely, it steers towards being a cute High School romantic comedy that’s almost John Hughes-esque (with of course a nod to his film Sixteen Candles and how racist the Long Duk Dong character is). Lara Jean is timid but smart, and while most teen rom-coms would play these traits for laughs to make her a bumbling idiot, it’s played more on how Lara Jean keeps herself being emotionally attached or opening out about her emotions and how she slowly comes out of her shall in the process of this fake relationship this agrees to with Peter Kavinsky. Lana Condor gives an commendable performance as Lara Jean, bringing a sincerity to the character with wit and likability, and that’s no mean feat considering the film rests on her shoulders. I’ve never seen any of his performances previously, but I thought Noah Centineo was good here playing the role of Peter Kavinsky, he has a likeable, charming quality (much like Israel Broussard as Josh Sanderson) that is a fine line for him considering how his character appears to flip-flop between Lara Jean and his ex-girlfriend Genevieve. Another strength the film has is the strong bond that the Covey sisters (and father) have with each other, it feels natural with how Condor bounces off Janel Parrish and Anna Cathcart have whenever on screen together, particularly Anna Cathcart provides some of the comedic moments of the film, though John Corbett playing the father has one funny moment that killed me with the line ‘Pulling out is not protection!’.
While the film is cute, likeable and watchable, it follows the same tropes of teen romantic comedies before it, the pretend relationship of the shy one with the popular one in the hopes of attracting the ones they really want to be with, the former best friend turned High-School nemesis and so on. Because of this, the film is pretty much predictable and the viewers will figure out what’s going to happen long before the characters do. The overall premise is somewhat ridiculous as well, what with the letters being addressed to the five crushes, and from what I’ve read online from fans of the book, there’s a few issues they have with the film feeling rushed or missing certain moments from the book. The film itself feels like it’s fifteen to twenty minutes too long.
VERDICT
To All The Boys I’ve Looked Before is a cutesy teen romantic comedy with a likeable lead in Lana Condor that you’re willing to follow and support, with likeable performances from a supporting cast that includes Noah Centineo, Israel Broussard and Anna Cathcart. It’s a ridiculous premise that takes you down a road you’ve been down a hundred times before, but it’s harmless, ticks all the boxes you may want in a teen comedy and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. 6/10
Irish Cinephile 