(Rated PG, 100 mins.)
Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, and set in the lowlands of North Carolina in the mid-1990s, the story follows the right of passage of Landon (Shane West), a jaded, aimless high school senior sentenced to do community service. He falls in love with Jamie Sullivan (MTV pop princess Mandy Moore), a young woman that he and his friends once scorned. Jamie is shunned by others not for the usual teen scenario of weird-not-fitting-in, but for goodness-not-fitting-in. She’s a preacher’s daughter. In the months that will follow, Landon discovers truths that take most people a lifetime to grasp including the power of love. While the movie is not another teen flick of who will take me to the prom, it manages to deliver a Christian message in a story that moves from “My Girl” meets “Sixteen Candles’ to “Love Story. What saves this film is its sincerity with a lesson in values.