It is a dark time for Sara Jean (Lana Condor).
Although her fears over her love letters being released has been destroyed,
anxiety over being enough of a “proper” girlfriend for her new boyfriend, Peter
(Noah Centenio), have driven Sarah Jean to contemplate what could have been
with former crush John Ambrose (Jordan Fisher). Evading the dreaded
interactions with Peter, Sarah Jean has established a new volunteer opportunity
in a local nursing home that reunites her with a teenage version of John
Ambrose. The uncertain Sara Jean, obsessed with finding a perfect romance, has
dispatched thousands of conversations to Ambrose to figure out if he, not
Peter, is her true love...
To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, the sequel to
the 2018 sleeper hit To All The Boys I Loved Before, delivers the same kind of super-sweet romance that made the original film so widely beloved. Though there
are a handful of dialogue references to the characters being savvy to the
tropes of classic romantic comedy movies, 2 All The 2 Boys is very much a
traditional take on a romantic-drama rather than a deconstruction or tweaking
of the genre.
That doesn’t make for exceedingly memorable cinema but
it also makes for a pleasant 100 minutes and one that’ll totally satisfy the
existing fanbase. If there is a major hindrance to the proceedings, it’s that
too often comedy hinging on dialogue falls flatter than they should. P.S. I
Still Love You comes off far more comfortable doing broad romantic drama than
it does engaging in broad dialogue-based comedy. This is especially true of the
assortment of quips given to Sara Jean’s sister, which tend to be the worst
kind of savvy kid sidekick humor. Similarly lackluster in the script by Sofia
Alvarez and J. Miles Goodloe is how its cast tends to be on the overstuffed
side of things.
This is especially true of a whole subplot concerning
Sara Jean’s Father‘s romantic infatuation with a neighbor that ends up being
extraneous to the proceedings. On the other hand, that same script does manage
to come up with a number of effectively moving moments, the most important
ingredient in any romantic drama. The best of these also turns out to be one of
the most enjoyably unexpected aspects of the film and concerns a touching
resolution to a rivalry between Sara Jean and the antagonistic Gen (Emilija
Baranac). I truly didn’t see these two’s dynamic going in such an empathetic
direction and that’s the kind of hopeful heartfelt material that defines the
best moments of this series.
This sequence ends with a bit of well-executed
camerawork that reinforces the solid visual sensibilities of this entry in the
To All The Boys saga. Director Michael Fimognari decides to differentiate his
filmmaking style from the first movie’s filmmaking by relying heavier on
extended single-takes as well as quasi-Wes Anderson-esque shots where the
camera quietly follows characters around a shot from a profile perspective. The
result is a handsome-looking production that reinforces how, this being a buzzy
sequel and all rather than a low-budget original title, Fimognari and company
are working with a much larger canvas than your average YA-romance novel
adaptation.
It’d have been awesome to see such a canvas be applied
to a more unique approach to the romantic-drama, I Still Love You’s tendency to
rely heavily on formula does tend to undercut what are supposed to be its most
poignant romantic moments. But overall it remains a pleasant enough affair,
especially since Lana Condor remains as endearing as ever. The greatest
blessing these To All The Boys movies ever delivered was giving Condor a
well-deserved opportunity do flourish as a lead performer, she’s so engaging
and entertaining in her newest turn as Sara Jean.
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