When it comes to teen rom-coms, Netflix is really hit or miss. To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was a movie that I truly did not want to watch. It was one of those nights where me and the wife were scrolling through what felt like the same titles over and over again when we decided to give this a try. We cannot be the only people who sometimes spend so much time looking for something that they lose interest in watching anything altogether before they pick something!
How to Download To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was released on August 17, 2018. You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. If you like to watch the actress Lana Therese Condor in other movies, check her out in X-Men: Apocalypse or Alita: Battle Angel.
The Movie Review
A Surprising Teen Romance
To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before was released in 2018 and it is based on a popular teen romance book. Look, if teen romance/coming of age style stories are not your jam, do not bother watching this! This has pretty much every cliché that a teen rom-com can have, but it somehow manages to pull it off.
Meet Lara Jean
Our main character is 16-year-old Lara Jean. Lara Jean is a nice, but very shy kid and she decided to write five letters to the boys that she had a crush on. One of whom is a guy called Josh who used to date her older sister Margaret! One of the other guys was someone called Peter, Peter is the ex of Lara Jean’s former friend turned arch nemesis at high school.
Unintended Drama
She wrote these letters for herself and never intended to send them. She wrote these love letters and then hid them away…. Only they were found and then mailed out to each of the guys! All of the guys want to talk to her about it, the first one being Peter, during a manic moment, she kisses Peter in front of Josh and then runs away.
The Fake Relationship
Because Josh was her sister’s boyfriend she wants to avoid dealing with that drama at all costs. So the only logical thing for Lara Jean and Peter to do was to pretend to be a couple! This would get Josh off the scent and also stick it to her former friend and Peter’s ex. They spend several months with everyone thinking that they are together.
Predictable Yet Charming
Look, you know where this is going a mile away. The two people pretending to love each other eventually fall in love. Everything that happens in this movie is so obvious, there are no twists and turns and it all works out right in the end and has a happy ending. There is even a little comical bit as the credits role.
Final Thoughts
The thing with To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is that while this is about as far from original as you can get. This is a movie that does what it does very well and it makes for a fun, charming, and heartwarming story. It is the kind of movie that I am sure teenage girls will just adore, but even us old adults can watch this and reminisce about the strange, fun, adorable, and of course, cringy things we did in the name of love during our high school days. This movie ended up being a nice surprise and I am glad we gave it a shot.
