by The Cowl Editor on February 27, 2020
Film and Television
by Madison Palmieri ’22 A&E Staff
The much-anticipated sequel to Netflix’s 2018 hit film To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before premiered on the streaming service on Feb. 12 to positive reviews, earning a 6.1 out of 10 rating on IMDb and 72 percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
The first film follows teenager Lara Jean Covey (Lana Condor), whose life is upended when the letters she wrote to her various love interests over the years are mistakenly mailed. She agrees to pretend to be the girlfriend of one of the boys, Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo), in order to make his ex-girlfriend jealous. Predictably, but nonetheless romantically, the pair begin to fall for one another, agreeing to actually date at the end of the movie.
In P.S. I Still Love You, Peter and Lara Jean’s fledgling relationship is soon threatened by his friendship with his ex-girlfriend and her coincidental encounter with another one of her former crushes. By the end of the film, however, the pair reconciles and reignites their romance.
Aside from Condor and Centineo, the movie features Emilija Baranac as Peter’s ex-girlfriend Gen, Jordan Fisher as Lara Jean’s old crush John Ambrose McClaren, Anna Cathcart and Janel Parrish as her sisters, and Madeleine Arthur as her best friend, Chris.
The films are based on a set of popular young adult novels by Jenny Han, published between 2014 and 2017. The first book in the series, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, has been published in over 30 languages and spent 40 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller List.
The novels’ transition to screen follows a larger trend of young adult novel adaptations that have graced Netflix in recent history, with everything from Anne with an E (based on Anne of Green Gables) to 13 Reasons Why.
With such a volume of material to watch, what made TATBILB so popular? According to a recent article in The Atlantic, the plot was fairly predictable, but “the adaptation’s delightful spin on classic teen rom-com tropes did take many viewers by surprise.”
For some viewers, however, P.S. I Still Love You did not live up to the magical whimsy of the first film. “It felt like there wasn’t enough of a plot twist. Nothing really made me sit on the edge of my seat. However, I really liked that there were two love interests!” Alexandra Velleca ’22 notes.
Regardless of whether P.S. I Still Love You lives up to the hype generated by its predecessor, fans of Peter and Lara Jean will certainly look forward to the Netflix premiere of the third and final film in the trilogy, Always and Forever, Lara Jean.
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Alright!! I can see the lovely angel, Anna Cathcart again.