I am not normally a fan of sappy romantic movies. Their plots are predictable, their characters have been seen time and again to the point of ad nauseum.
But, once in a while, a sappy romance is what we want to watch.
One of the first sappy romances of the early 2000’s was Here On Earth (2000). Kelley (Chris Klein) is a young man who is rich, brash and spoiled. He attends private school in a small town where the students do not get along with the locals. When a race with one of the local boys, Jasper (Josh Hartnett) ends in the destruction of a local restaurant, Kelley and Jasper must live together with Jasper’s family and work together to rebuilt the restaurant.
Add in Jasper’s girlfriend, Samantha (LeeLee Sobieski) and you have a teen drama to properly launch off the 21st century.
For a teenage romantic drama, the movie is not bad. Adding to age of this film is the theme song sung by the early 2000’s second most popular couple in music, Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson.
Two years later, another romantic drama hit theaters. A Walk To Remember (2002) is another adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks book.
Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore) is the daughter of the town’s Baptist minister. Shy and retiring, the last thing she expects is to spend time with Landon Carter (Shane West), a popular boy with a bad reputation. Landon is being held responsible for a prank that resulted in a friend’s forced hospital stay. His punishment is to do community service. What starts out as a forced task on Landon and Jamie turns into a friendship that blossoms into young love. But Jamie has a secret and Landon’s friends are very willing to malign Jamie publicly. Will the relationship between Landon and Jamie survive or will it go the way that young love often goes?
I am not a fan of Nicholas Sparks, but I like this movie. Jamie has a quiet resolve to stay true to herself, despite the pressure to fit in. Landon starts out as wayward young man with no idea what he wants to do with his life and by the end of the book, discovers his true calling.
I recommend both.
Writergurlny 