A Walk to Remember – an unheralded unsung film worth seeing

Bridget Jones’s Diary must rank among the most popular film comedies of recent years. One can laugh just about the whole way through as Bridget Jones compulsively gets into one desperate soul-destroying situation (mostly with men) after another. The film has special appeal to women most of whom say they can identify with Bridget to some extent – some totally. They, too, have been the victim of a Daniel Cleaver type (Hugh Grant’s character). Many people, however, may fail to see that Bridget Jones’s Diary is a biting, even vicious, satire on modern life.

It does not project the dark brooding nihilism that runs through American Beauty, an equally vicious and at time hilarious satire on modern society, but it brings to the screen no less accurately the meaninglessness, aimlessness and lack of any guiding principle in the lives of many people today. We watch as Bridget (Renee Zellweger), now past the thirty mark with the biological clock ticking loudly, recognises full well that her boss, Daniel Cleaver, is weak, self-indulgent, without principle, manipulative and untrustworthy but yet ends up in his bed with the full treatment – including acts which she herself comments are ‘illegal’ in other countries. Could the film have depicted her in a more degraded state?

Bridget should not be surprised on the evidence of Daniel's character to discover he is two-timing her. It should be no less of a surprise to find he is engaged to a beautiful younger colleague from the New York office of his publishing company. This is such a trampling on Bridget’s dignity that for once she is full of resolve and resigns her job. It is quite a pathetic scene with Bridget marching from the office to the tune of the hit ‘Respect’ while her colleagues silently applaud her ‘moral’ victory and Daniel looks on deflated.

It is a sad comment on the state of manhood in modern Western society that some young women, not at all of the Bridget type, can recognise in this film the treatment they have been subjected to.

In so many films today there is the Bridget and a Daniel type. When they come together it is usually the Bridget type that succumbs to the swift, cool-talking, nonchalant, joke-cracking Daniel type ending up in his bed to join him in his weak, aimless, unprincipled existence or to be later cast aside. In A Walk to Remember we have at last a believable female character of such strong Christian principle that the Daniel type does not even look like overwhelming her. The opposite happens.

The film opens with cool handsome Landon Carter (Shane West) and his male and female school friends meeting at night on the premises of what looks like a brick factory. The talk of the males is the usual almost incoherent animal grunting that youths seem to think is cool conversation. The girls are there putting up with the stupidity and the preoccupation with sex that comes through the inane grunting of the boys. At a certain point, a youth appears on the scene who wants to join this A-list group of school friends. He must go through an initiation. He must jump off a platform high above a reservoir. The prank goes wrong and the boy almost dies.

Landon Carter’s punishment, imposed by the school principal, is to tutor a young student on the weekends and take part in a school play. Landon cannot muster enough contempt and boredom to deal with this punishment. It is in these circumstances, though, that he gets to know Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore), only daughter of the local Baptist minister whose wife has passed away. Landon knows Jamie as the daggy, quiet, cardigan-wearing student that he and his friends mock and tease gratuitously whenever she is in the neighbourhood. As Landon completes his tour of punishment he gets to know Jamie better. He finds a lot beneath the surface. Despite Jamie’s soft, self-effacing, feminine appearance and manner, he finds in her a strength of character and firm attachment to principle that is completely missing in his life and the lives of his friends. Jamie does not wilt before the handsome cool Landon Carter. It is Landon that begins to wilt. The rest of the film (the majority) goes on to deal with the development of this relationship.

There is little originality in the story line despite a few surprises that are crucial to its development. The success of the film is in the understated manner in which it deals with the love theme and in the development of strong believable characters that are paper-thin caricatures in most other films. Jamie, as the frail sweet girl of immovable Christian conviction is entirely believable. Her father as the principled firm but loving Baptist minister, instead of the self-righteous, hypocritical bible-basher in many films, is also believable. The locations, both inside and out, are similarly understated with soft colours predominating and supporting the mood of the film.

American films that deal with this sort of love story are often so overdone and sickly sweet that most Australian audiences would be turned off before a quarter of the way in. A Walk to Remember is not like that. Nevertheless I would say that only the hardest of hearts could get through the later stages of the film without struggling to suppress a tear. The young woman who recommended I see this film said that she ‘considered it one of the best, most interesting, and most underrated films of 2002.’ I agree. It is available on first release in your video library. Get it out and see it. Especially show it to your children.