‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’ review — A crush-worthy teen rom-com

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is a swoon-worthy teen romantic comedy with a heart of gold and a trailblazing protagonist.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before comes on the heels of Set it Up and Crazy Rich Asians, which seems to cement 2018 as the comeback of the romantic comedy. And while To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before would seem like it has the least pedigree of the three, it’s one of the best teen movies I’ve seen in years—including movies I loved this year like Love, Simon and Blockers. That’s because it, for the most part, subverts the typical teen rom-com cliches.

One part of that is casting Vietnamese-born actress Lana Condor as the lead character who was written in Jenny Han’s book of the same name as a half-Korean, half-Caucasian girl—something that not every Hollywood adaptation of a prior property has done. However, the other part of the movie’s success is that Susan Johnson took those typical rom-com cliches in the movie and simply makes them work. It has the typical structure of a rom-com, but fills that structure with realistic—but still over-the-top—characters and a star-making performance by Condor.

Condor plays Lara Jean Covey, your typical high school student who awkwardly tries to find someone to sit with in the cafeteria, is afraid to drive, and harbors crushes on boys that she barely has contact with. However, unlike most teens, she writes letters to each of her crushes—the letters are as embarrassing as you’d think—and hides them away in a gift box her deceased mother gave her. Some of those crushes include a middle school spin-the-bottle kiss, Peter (Noah Centineo), her Freshman year homecoming date Lucas (Trezzo Mahoro), and her sister Margot’s boyfriend and former friend Josh (Israel Broussard).

That last crush is the one that could have the most devastating effect for Laura Jean since Margot (played by Janel Parrish) has broken up with Josh right before she left for college in Scotland. That’s why when the letters somehow get out in typical rom-com fashion, Lara Jean hatches a plan to avoid an awkward discussion about his letter.

💌 Sign up for our weekly email newsletter with movie recommendations available to stream.

ADVERTISEMENT

That plan involves another former crush, Peter, now the school’s most popular lacrosse-playing jock who just broke up with his girlfriend and Lara Jean’s former best friend Gen (Emilija Baranac), pretending to be her fake boyfriend to convince Josh she’s not in love with him anymore. But Peter has his own motivation for the fake relationship. He desperately wants Gen back since she left him for a college student.

Though the plot is as teen rom-com as it gets and the story beats don’t stray too far from the standard—there are ridiculous parties in enormous mansions, a climactic school event that is a turning point for the movie, a leaked embarrassing moment caught on camera—Johnson makes every single moment count, even the corny ones.

But what struck me the most was the emotional moments. Surprisingly they had a lot of impact, especially a moment where Lara Jean and her father (John Corbett) reminisce about her mother and he tells her a story about a diner they’d frequent. A lot of rom-coms can feel like they lack a human element, but it’s alive and well To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.

The reason Netflix has been so successful in churning out romantic comedies is that they realize they don’t have to reinvent the wheel. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before doesn’t do much to surprise, but it has heart, something that the barrage of rom-coms that came out in the 2000s didn’t have. Don’t sleep on this movie just because it’s familiar—save for a lead character and actor blazing a trail for diversity—To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is a crush-worthy movie that will have your heart swooning.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is now streaming on Netflix. You can get the novel here.