Never thought a teen romance movie on an online streaming service would be that engaging. It’s Christmas and I got nothing much to do so I thought I would just put on something light while I was making my beetroot juice. Read quite a bit about ‘To All the Boys I Loved Before’ so thought that I would give it a try. After all it is a teen romcom how hard would it be to follow the story while doing other things?
I was correct. The story was quite straight forward but it was funny and creative at the same time. The premise was quite simple. A girl who was obsessed with romantic novels wrote 5 love letters to the boys she thought she could be in love with but never sent them out. They were properly addressed but never sent. Circumstances changed and the letters got accidently sent. She had to pick up the pieces while controlling the damages to her and those around her. From that point onward, the question became “Would her high score student status be enough for her to survive this turmoil?”
For me kudos must be given to the casting. Netflix has demonstrated that they don’t stick with the traditional Hollywood casting choices as the front and centre was a mixed family. The well-known name for me here was John Corbett, who was trying to do his best as a single father while keeping together his professional career as an established gynaecologist. With three daughters in the family would his gynaecological knowledge be enough to helped him as a father at all? That was part of the fun watching the movie. Also, the brilliant minds of the girls always managed to cook up something that their father was not prepared for.
As Laura Jean, aka LJ, the middle daughter navigated this mess she created, she also created other opportunities for her own personal growth. Lana Condor was an excellent casting choice for the role as she radiates the intelligence that was clouded by silly romantic novels demonstrated by the character. The way she cooked up schemes after schemes to combat the disasters caused by her love letters was hilarious to watch. However, she nailed it when she told her partner in crime Pete (Noah Centineo) that she could handle it because romantic things are fun when they are fake.
It is a teen drama so of course you have all those typical mean girls’ stuff with over confident girls who think they are hotter than Mars treating other girls whom they deemed geeky, goth and unpretty like dirt. Scheming to get them embarrassed at school and showing off their trophy boyfriends, who might or might not care about them. There were a lot of things happening at school and they seemed like that’s all about their lives. However, ‘To All the Boys I Loved Before’ did not play safe to stay in the stereotypical territory. In fact, they broke down the Hollywood generalisation of how teenagers act in school giving them a bit more dimension in terms of characterisation.
I won’t talk about it too much in details as that could spoil some important plot points for the movie. It is not Oscar winning materials but for me it was a very pleasant surprise to watch something that breathed a refreshing life to the genre instead of sticking with the typical ‘horny boys and mean girls’ formula. I personally think that Netflix proved itself as a serious contender in the film and TV industry with the bold choices they are willing to make for their Netflix Originals materials. If you have a bit of time to kill, I highly recommend this refreshing piece of work for a lazy afternoon or a cosy Saturday night in.
