Movie vs Book Review: A Walk To Remember… But is it a Movie You WANT To Remember?
Sarah Murphy
June 2021
Picture plopping down on your cozy couch with a warm bowl of buttery popcorn on your lap. You still have happy, fuzzy feelings lingering from this fantastic book you just finished. With the click of a button, you start playing its movie adaptation. For most readers, this is the ultimate source of skepticism: over the course of the next two hours, your heart is either shattered with a horrific, awful, appalling movie that does not in the slightest, resemble the plot of the book--warped by added scenes or the absence of significant details--or, if you are EXTREMELY lucky, you watch a movie adaptation that is SHOCKINGLY good and meets your very high expectations. Let’s see where Nicholas Sparks’s A Walk To Remember falls on that scale.
The movie adaptation isn’t awful… if you pretend it’s a different story entirely and has absolutely nothing to do with the book.
Within the first few seconds, the movie already differs from the novel. This favorite book of mine starts with the story of 57-year-old Landon Carter, who tenderly reflects on his 17-year-old self in 1948, creating an atmosphere of nostalgia. The movie lacks this. It instead changes the time period to the rap-blaring early 2000’s and opens with a teenager jumping off a platform into shallow water to join Landon’s gang of drunk, profane friends. This does not even remotely resemble the book and cringely labels Landon as the cliche “bad boy”. I get that it’s a generic Nicholas Sparks story, but really, this is how we start the movie?
Landon and Jamie--the two main characters--practically come from opposite sides of the world. Landon is known as the town’s “bad boy” in the book due to his (strange) habit of eating broiled peanuts in the graveyard; in the movie, Landon’s shady reputation is due to his gang, a wonderful family-friendly cast of sex-crazed alcoholics. Meanwhile, Jamie’s reputation is pristine--adored by adults and loathed by teenagers--because of her odd acts of goodwill--and, oh yeah, she’s the pastor’s daughter. The movie represents her initial character well, but how can you not--she’s Jamie Sullivan, irreplaceable. The two start off as frenemies, but fate has some unexpected twists in store for them….
They fall in love. Big shocker, considering it’s a Nicholas Sparks book. The movie was great when it came to depicting the indestructible bond between Jamie and Landon. The only flaw was the process of falling in love itself. Like every movie ever, the romance was rushed, which is understandable considering a complex love story has to be packed into two hours. HOWEVER, in the movie, the reasoning behind Landon’s feelings for Jamie were mainly due to her looks. Ready for more early 2000’s clicheness? The moment he realized he loved her was when she let her hair down and “suddenly” became beautiful. As if she didn’t look the exact same! On the other hand, he had fallen in love with her unyielding kindness in the book. The moment he knew he loved her was when she gifted him her mother’s Bible, which she kept glued to her after her mother’s death despite the crude sneers of her classmates. It was what she held most dear to her. Here comes the shocking part: in the movie, Jamie randomly gives Landon a book of her mother’s favorite QUOTES instead and even says, “don’t worry it’s not a Bible.” WHAT????????? I nearly threw the remote at the TV. I was INFURIATED. That line was a DIRECT insult to the book. Giving away the Bible to Landon was practically giving away the key to her heart. This was belittled and stripped down to an insignificant book of measly “inspirational” quotes that held no meaning whatsoever. She didn’t even carry it with her!
The reason she gave away the book, unfortunately (SPOILER ALERT), was her inevitable death. Leukemia. Although Jamie’s chilling words, “I’m dying, Landon” are infinitely better than the movie’s blunt “I’m sick”, Landon’s response was fantastically portrayed in the movie. His tear-drenched face was scrunched with grief throughout the end. He even attempted to better the end of her life by building her a telescope (time to raise your standards, girls) and even naming a star after her--both not in the book, but they were so touching that I’ll let it pass.
And finally, with one of her last breaths, she accepted Landon’s proposal. This fulfilled what she wanted most--a marvelous wedding, the doors practically bulging with guests. Although, this whole “last breath” thing was really only in the book. She had struggled to walk down the aisle due to her sickness, but in the movie she seemed as healthy as ever, as if she wasn’t about to die a week later. Once again, unrealistic beauty expectations.
The love between Jamie and Landon was the purest form of love I had ever witnessed. That is what makes this novel so touching. And what makes her death so tragic. Despite the gazillions of times I have read it, the ending continues to perplex me. Jamie’s death was obvious in the movie, but the novel leaves a lingering hope for optimistic readers with Landon’s ambiguous phrase that ended the book: “I now believe, by the way, that miracles can happen.”
In all fairness, I may be a bit biased. I loved the movie before I was converted to the book version (which are always infinitely better). My true fury comes from the constant betrayal I’ve endured as a reader who watches awful movie adaptations, and I suppose I unleashed it in this article. Overall, the movie is sweet. It may not exactly follow the plot of the book, but will forever remain an early 2000’s classic that I adore.