Review: “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” Shows Modern Teen Love Story
Netflix presents its newest original movie recently and it’s titled “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”. Starring new faces like Lana Condor, Noah Centineo, and Israel Broussard, the movie was adapted from a best-selling novel written by Jenny Han. Unlike typical American teen movies which center around all-white female characters, this time an interracial female actor becomes the leading lady. Born and raised in an American-Korean family gave Lara-Jean (Lana Condor) and her two sisters the best of both worlds. Since her mother passed away when she was a child, she only had her elder sister Margot (Janel Parrish) to look up to. Lara-Jean can be considered as a shy girl without many friends to hang out with except Chris, an eccentric fellow high schooler that gives no f*** whatsoever. She grew up with many romantic novels and it made her become a hopeless romantic.
She often imagined spending time with her crushes and she wrote her sincerest feelings towards them in letters which she never sent. In total there are five boys that she had ever crush with and one of them was Margot’s current boyfriend Josh Sanderson. When Morgan left for college in Scotland, she broke up with Josh, leaving Lara-Jean in an awkward position whether to still befriend him as she used to pre-Margot or act like a total stranger. Problems arose when Lara-Jean cleaned up her closet and gave a few things up to charity. A box containing the letters she wrote to her crushes went missing in the process and it turned out that most of them were sent to the recipients including Josh.
Director Susan Johnson is not only excellent in capturing various complicated thoughts that are happening to a teenage girl with the scenes. Those who are currently facing this phase or ever experienced it must feel some kind of connection with the lead character. Having an imaginary conversation with your crush, imagining a beautiful love story while there is none, or trying to be invisible in a sea of people are just a few examples of what high school might be for some of us. Johnson is also capable of creating beautiful shots along the way using geometrical perspectives. The premise is pretty simple and might ring a bell or two if you’re a huge fan of rom-com stories. The difference lays on the delivery of the characters, the modern twist it has using different racial backgrounds and sexual preferences, and maybe because the chemistry between the couple is so cute! Also, we love the fact that Hollywood becomes more open to film with Asian lead character or even better, a full Asian cast like “Crazy Rich Asian” which we are dying to watch as well. Watch “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” on Netflix and take a peek of its trailer below.
