tlashop.com

Review

Love isn't such a many-splendored thing after the filmmakers of this cloying tear-jerker get finished with it. West plays an annoying big-man-on-high-school-campus who meets too-wholesome-to-be-true cutie-pie (and daughter of the local preacher) Moore, and slooow-ly they fall in love. Of course, this being based on a Nicholas Sparks novel, tragedy awaits one of them. In her first starring movie role, pop singing star Moore isn't all that bad (certainly more successful than Mariah or Britney), and her scenes with Coyote have a genuinely tender feel to them. But the film is awash in gooey melodrama, relegating it to the level of an "Afterschool Special." Strictly for adolescent girls, though to be fair older viewers may make it to the end without losing their lunch.