Premise: Lara Jean and Peter go into Senior year with questions about what colleges they will choose and the effect that will have on their relationship.
I'm pretty sure I've started all of these Reactions for this series with a form of "I'm not in the demographic they're targeting for these movies", which remains true. What's especially apparent though is that as the series has continued, the movies have gotten less about the gimmick and more about the characters. The first movie has the very fun love letter premise. The second movie has further fallout from that. By the third, the letters are a distant memory, and it's fully about if Lara Jean and Peter will stay together. And that's where my age difference from the target demo matters in how I watch the movie.
I'm sorry to say, I don't believe in Lara Jean and Peter. I think Lana Condor and Noah Centineo remain wonderful together. They are most of the reason these movies are still popular and so watchable. For Always and Forever to work though, I need to be invested in the idea of them as a forever couple, and I'm not. I just assume they'll go to college and split up due to distance and growth as people. Lara Jean's backdoor pilot adventure at NYU reminded me that she's still figuring herself out. To me, it actually sounds like a bummer for those two to stay together throughout college. Everyone I knew in college got more interesting when they finally broke up with that boyfriend/girlfriend back home. So, I spent this movie actively rooting against the interest in the movie. That made for a more frustrating 2 hours.
I continue to be impressed by how these movies feel like a TV show season that was expertly edited down to movie size. Like, I can easily imagine all the B and C stories with the dad, sisters, and friends that were cut out to focus only on the Lara Jean and Peter story. The downside for the casual viewer of the movie is that there's more assumed familiarity, even in the first movie, like I already know the characters well. This works better the more invested in the series you are. As someone only planning to watch each movie once, it makes me feel like it's test day and everyone else did the reading I didn't know about.
This is a fitting end to the series. It keeps the focus on that central relationship without betraying either of the characters. The drama feels very high school in a good way. It ends on a hopeful but not absolute note. I did miss the days of fake relationships and choosing between boys. Choosing between a boy or a college is a little less compelling. From here, I'd happily follow "Lara Jean in the City" adventures, but I'm done with anything more focused on that relationship.
Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend
No comments:
Post a Comment