'To All The Boys: Always And Forever'
Cast: Laa Condor, Noah Centineo, Janel Parrish, Anna Cathcart, Ross Butler, Madelaine Arthur, Emilija Baranac, Trezzo Mahoro, Sarayu Blue, John Corbett, Kelcey Mawema, Sofia Black-D'Elia and Henry Thomas
Director: Michael Fimognari
Duration: One hour 55 minutes
Where to Watch: Netflix
Critics' Rating: 2.5/5
'To All The Boys: Always And Forever' Story:
As Lara Jean Covey prepares for the end of high school and the start of adulthood, a pair of life-changing trips leads her to reimagine what life with her family, friends, and Peter will look like after graduation.
'To All The Boys: Always And Forever' Review:
Since 2018, Netflix gave hopeless romcom lovers a cute teenage love story To All The Boys. The first instalment To All the Boys I've Loved Before which streamed in 2018 showed how a letter leads a couple of Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor) and Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) to fake a romance and eventually fall in love with each other. The second part of the series To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You which hit Netflix in 2020 showed the ups and downs of teenage romance.
Now the third and the final instalment of the series To All the Boys: Always and Forever has Lara and Peter growing up and setting their foot on the maturity by accepting that they have to get out of the high school romance and gear up for the real world. The start of the film shows a short glimpse of their long-distance relationship as Lara vacations with her family in Seoul. However, they start planning to study at Stanford University together where Peter has already got in.
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But Lara fails to get into Stanford and the whole hullabaloo of how to tell this to her one true love takes place. But like every New York fantasizing people, Lara falls in love with Big Apple. And on top of it, she gets into New York University too. But now, Lara again has confusion in her life - whether to go to the University of California, Berkeley (UCB) where she can just be an hour away from Peter or NYU, 3000 miles away from her love.
How prolonged the dilemma of Lara sounds, the screenplay makes it much tiring too. The excitement level just dropped making it the weakest of all the three films in the series. While watching it felt like the whole team are in a sudden urge to end it and move on from their teen romantic phase.
To All the Boys: Always and Forever has all the elements of high school romance from Prom, graduation to college admissions, but it's just Peter and Lara are lost somewhere as latter makes herself a priority at once.
There comes another dilemma of not having their meet-cute as it's Lara and Peter there should be one such moment for them. And another, their song!
This is the first of many times where Lara takes charge of her life and has no inhibitions in deciding for herself. She gives a prompt reply 'I fell in love with the city' to her human love when Peter asks her need of choosing to be 3000 miles away from him.
To All the Boys: Always and Forever stayed within the comfort area and not exploring what more can be done in a teenage romcom. Every year the audience evolves and expects the movie they watch too. But being a series of this genre one can only expect the makers to stay in the limits and entertain with it.
'To All The Boys: Always And Forever' Verdict:
Lara Jean Covey and Peter Kavinsky's meet-cute romance gets a disappointing 'one last kiss'.
