Mistakes and all, Lara Jean stays true to herself in the “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” sequel
Besides the usual slew of chocolates, candies and flowers that came with Valentine’s Day, this year, we were also gifted “P.S. I Still Love You,” the second movie of the “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” trilogy, which debuted on Feb. 12.
This film has all your typical quirks of a teen romance movie: two handsome love interests, a good dose of drama and plenty of romantic moments that you will either find cute or cringy.
Though I thoroughly enjoyed “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” — enough to watch it twice and read the book — “P.S. I Still Love You” didn’t live up to my expectations. The first movie brought us a love story, but in a way I hadn’t seen before. All the love letters and fake dating really spiced up an otherwise traditional movie about a high school romance.
Unfortunately, the second movie didn’t provide the same ingenuity as the first. The plot was similar, if not exactly the same, to countless other films about teen romance and the entire story was rather unmemorable.
This movie follows the story of Lara Jean Covey, a 16-year-old high school junior who recently started dating Peter Kavinsky after their pretend relationship in the first movie caused them both to fall for one another. Everything is peachy until Lara Jean gets a letter from her elementary school crush, John Ambrose McLaren.
Lara Jean is hesitant to reply to John Ambrose, but she doesn’t have to make that decision because he just so happens to be volunteering at the same place she is.
This, as you might imagine, complicates Lara Jean’s situation and feelings. Lara Jean is already confused about what being a girlfriend looks like, and she starts spending more time with John Ambrose, which furthers her doubts about her relationship with Peter.
At this point in the film, I started getting frustrated with LJ and her decisions. Because she’s spending more time with John Ambrose volunteering, they start to get close, yet she never tells him that she’s dating Peter. This leads to all kinds of mixed signals for John Ambrose and causes a fight between LJ and Peter.
This was frustrating to watch because it could have easily been avoided with simple communication. Lara Jean never communicates to John Ambrose that she’s in a relationship and remains emotionally available to him throughout the film, which muddled the boundaries of friendship and romance between them. Her lack of communication and the confusion caused by it proved her immaturity and made me question whether she should be dating at all.
Emma Beck, a freshman acting major, said she didn’t like how the movie gave too much attention to the conflict between LJ and Peter and not enough to the resolution.
“They focused too much on the fighting between Peter and LJ,” she said.
Beck thought the movie was too focused on the problem and not enough on the resolution.
“When they made up at the end it seemed like it came completely out of nowhere,” Beck said.
Josh Jantz, a freshman chemistry major, also believes that the movie’s main conflict was weak and was frustrated by the lack of communication between characters.
“In my opinion, I thought the fight was out of nowhere between LJ and Peter,” he said.
Though this movie had it’s frustrating moments and a somewhat messy and unoriginal plotline, I’d argue it was realistic in its portrayal of a teen romance. In fact, there were a lot of ways in which I related to Lara Jean in all her confusion of dating for the first time.
I too had questions and doubts. I didn’t know how to be a girlfriend or what dating someone should look like. What were the expectations? What will other people think? Do I actually want this? And on and on. I understand her rich inner-life and all the overthinking that comes with it.
New relationships are fun and exciting but also scary and hard to navigate at times. Though I didn’t agree with all of LJ’s decisions, I also understand that she’s a 16 year old, and when you’re that young, you’re bound to make mistakes.
I would argue Lara Jean has a long way to go in her romantic relationships, but it was refreshing to see her and Genevieve, her ex-best friend and Peter’s ex-girlfriend, resolve their differences and become somewhat friends again.
Also, the side stories within the movie, such as the budding romance between Lara Jean’s dad and their neighbor, were adorable and added charm and light-heartedness to an otherwise melodramatic depiction of teen romance.
Overall, this is a good movie to watch with all your friends — which is exactly what I did. We rolled our eyes and laughed at all the silly drama while arguing over whether we were team Peter or team John Ambrose — team Peter all the way.
Though this movie is no different from any of the other teenage rom-coms you might encounter, Lara Jean’s character manages to keep it real, mistakes and all. From her confusion about dating to lip syncing and dancing alone in her room, her character remains one that I’m sure many of us resonate with.