A Walk to Remember (2002) or, Annoying Girl and Idiotic Guy Find Each Other and Love Like the Wind, Which You Can Feel But Not Touch

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The two young stars in a loving embrace on this pleasant poster for Adam Shankman's A Walk to Remember

  
The high school's tough boy opens his eyes to its quiet outsider achiever girl after a near-fatal, stupid accident, - but the girl carries a heavy secret.

A Walk to Remember is written by Karen Janszen (Dolphin Tale (2011)), adapting the same-titled 1999 novel by Nicholas Sparks (The Choice (2007)), and directed by Adam Shankman (Cosmo's Tale (1998)).
It is a very slow (and dull) teenage romance, which appeals strongly to certain young segments, (teenage girls namely.) The story is served and acted with sincerity, and solid values like love, faith and loyalty get a push.
But these circumstances are hindered by the protagonists mostly being very aggravating (her) and braindead (him). The music video aesthetic that was popular at the time also doesn't heighten A Walk to Remember, which is banal and overly simplified.

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 11.8 mil. $
Box office: 47.4 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 4.02 times its cost)
[A Walk to Remember premiered 23 January (USA) and runs 102 minutes. Sparks had written the novel inspired by his sister, who succumbed to cancer in 2000. Shooting took place from April - May 2001 in North Carolina. The film opened #3, behind holdover hits Black Hawk Down and Snow Dogs, to a 12.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#3) and grossed 41.2 mil. $ (86.9 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Mexico with 1.4 mil. $ (3 %) and Australia with 1 mil. $ (2.1 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Shankman returned with Monk (2002, TV-series) and theatrically with Bringing Down the House (2003). Mandy More (This Is Us (2016-20)) returned in Elton John music video Original Sin (2002) and theatrically in Try Seventeen (2002); Shane West (Hollywood Rules (2011)) in A Time for Dancing (2002). A Walk to Remember is rotten at 27 % with a 4.11/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Walk to Remember?

Dolphin Tale (2011) - A potentially great story wobbles in poor production

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Some celebrities, a couple of kids and a dolphin float around in the water on the poster for Charles Martin Smith's Dolphin Tale

Dolphin Tale is the 9th film from Californian director Charles Martin Smith (Air Bud (1997)). It is a family film based on a true story.

In Florida, a boy without a father finds a dolphin on a beach, entangled in a crab case, and helps to rescue it to a marine facility, where the creature and its rehabilitation becomes his main priority.

There's a very fine story at play in Dolphin Tale. A humanistic story of not giving up hope, of living with a disability and of the bond between an animal and a person.
Unfortunately, the writing of Dolphin Tale is all but imaginative, and although the film tackles serious issues, it still feels like it is wrapped in Styrofoam. - I get that the makers have decided that this should be child-friendly and uplifting, but it has gotten the best of them here, because Dolphin Tale, though based on a true story, doesn't feel very real. It feels like a polished Disney Channel-version of reality, where people always have nice hair and walk around in up key lighting and smile with their teeth at all times. (Disney didn't make Dolphin Tale though.) It is written by Karen Janszen (A Walk to Remember (2002)) and Noam Dromi (Road to Hollow (2013), TV-series). Smith's direction of Dolphin Tale is unsure and uninspired.
The boy (Nathan Gamble (The Mist (2007))) mostly acts well, but the girl opposite him (debuting Cozi Zuehlsdorff (Sofia the First (2013-15))) acts poorly and is annoyingly written. Some of this is, of course, Smith as the director's fault.
The adult members of the cast, Harry Connick Jr. (Hope Floats (1998)), Ashley Judd (Tooth Fairy (2010)), Kris Kristofferson (The Motel Life (2012)), Morgan Freeman (Lucky Number Slevin (2006)), Austin Stowell (Whiplash (2014)) and Frances Sternhagen (Misery (1990)), all pass the buck, but neither of them are memorable or get any real space to shine here.
The film's use of 3D is a cheap selling ploy more than anything else, and in light of the film's other deficiencies, bad taste.
SPOILER Dolphin Tale ends with a segment of clips from the real-life dolphin's story, which are moving, but they shouldn't erase the fact that the film before it was far from all it could have been.
The dolphin Winter is the real star of Dolphin Tale, and anyone who loves dolphins should at least take pleasure in the scenes with Winter and her remarkable story.

Related posts:
 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III] 
2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess 

Watch the trailer for the movie here

Cost: 37 mil. $
Box office: 95.4 mil. $
= Even Steven
[Dolphin Tale opened #3 in the US, behind the re-release of The Lion King (1994) and Moneyball. In its second week, it climbed to #1 on an extremely fatigued movie weekend with just 13.9 mil. $. It ended up making 72.2 mil. $ in North America (76 % of the total gross). The film was generally well-reviewed in America, and Dolphin Tale 2 (2014) is also already a fact.]

What do you think of Dolphin Tale?
What other movies about dolphins have you seen?