As someone who’s read To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before at least five times, let me reassure fellow book fans of one thing: You’re going to completely love this movie.
(Very mild movie spoilers ahead if you’re a book fan, and somewhat more moderate movie spoilers ahead if you’ve never read the book)
There’s always a bit of trepidation involved when you hear that a book that you love so dearly is going to be adapted as a movie. On the one hand, it’s super exciting to be able to see a story that you’ve practically memorized and characters that you love so intensely on screen instead of within the confines of your mind.
On the other hand, adaptations can — and often do — go very, very wrong. Many times book to movie adaptations are such glaring cash grabs, so obviously made by people who have little connection to the story and even less familiarity with the characters, that it feels like it would’ve been better to not have a movie version in the first place.
So while I was incredibly excited to learn that To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before was going to be a movie, a part of me was also really worried about how the story might get adapted. Would Lara Jean feel too quirky/manic-pixie dream girl-ish? Would Peter K come off as just a one-dimensional jock rather than a jock with a heart of gold? Would the movie adequately be able to capture Lara Jean’s slow journey from fake relationship into real relationship?
Fortunately, I’m happy to say that not only did I watch the movie and love it, I’ve now probably watched it at least five or six times since getting it and will likely watch it a couple more times this weekend on Netflix (also because I wanna get those numbers up so we can get a sequel, y’all!). I fell in love with all the characters all over again and was left with that warm, fuzzy feeling that only the best romcoms can give you.
Now, did all of my favorite book scenes make it into the movie? Of course not — and I’m sure that, as a book fan, some of your favorite ones won’t have made it in either. And while that is somewhat disappointing, as book fans, we might also have to admit that including all of our favorite scenes would require a 13 episode season of television show rather than an hour and a half movie.
So while the movie may not include the trip to the antique store (one of my personal favorite scenes from the book), what it does do so well is capture what matters — Lara Jean coming out of her shell, the slow burn romance between Peter and Lara Jean, the importance of family and sisterhood. I laughed, I cried, I cheered, I covered my eyes to shield myself from secondhand mortification, and I clutched my heart as I was overwhelmed with feels.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is such a lovely, funny, and warm rom-com that more than does justice to Jenny Han’s contemporary classic. And while I’ll wait to go into more specifics when it officially drops this Friday, August 17th, here are the top five things I absolutely loved about it to get you excited for the premiere.
5. Noah Centineo as Peter Kavinsky
I had no idea who Noah Centineo was before this movie, and I have to admit that when he was first announced as Peter Kavinsky, I found myself somewhat skeptical. He didn’t quite seem to fit what I’d had in mind and I was a little bit worried because so much rests on the athletic shoulders of Peter Kavinsky.
Well, egg on my face, dear readers (and soon to be viewers of this lovely movie). Noah Centineo does a tremendous job as Peter Kavinsky, deftly playing the role of a fine but simple, sometimes arrogant but always earnest jock with a heart of gold. He has all the easy confidence and charm of someone who knows he’s the king of the cafeteria crowd (as Chris dubs him in the movie)
This is not, of course, to say that Lana Condor doesn’t likewise do a tremendous job as Lara Jean — she absolutely does and we should all be incredibly grateful that she was cast as Lara Jean. I’m singling out Noah for two reasons: the first is because Lana basically gets recognized for her performance in each one of the numbers on this list, and the second because I think that Peter K is a particularly tricky role to get right.
Lara Jean is so easy to like and so easy to root for — someone whom I’m sure many readers (myself included) see a lot of ourselves in and the type of girl most of us would’ve definitely been friends with in high school. Peter, on the other hand, is the coolest boy in school, someone who’s athletic, handsome, popular — and knows it. He could’ve easily proved to be rather unlikable had he been played by the wrong actor.
Lucky for us all, Noah Centineo was the exact right choice and proved himself to be both wildly talented and incredibly charismatic. He plays Peter K with just the right amount of swagger, vulnerability and emotion that you just can’t help but root for him.
He also has a really, really good smitten face.
(…and, you know, just a good face all around.)
4. An added (non-book scene!) between Lara Jean and her dad
When I interviewed Jenny Han, she singled this scene out as one that she especially loved — and for good reason. While Lara Jean’s dad is mostly used for laughs throughout the movie, he also has one really sweet, really emotional scene with Lara Jean towards the end of the movie. Both Lana Condor and John Corbett do such a tremendous job here as father and daughter, easily weaving between heartfelt talk, emotional asides and light teasing.
It’s a touching scene that shows how much he loves her, the lingering sadness in both their lives due to the loss of Lara Jean’s mom and how far Lara Jean’s come out of her shell as a result of being with Peter. It’s open and honest and sweet and totally made me cry. It’s a scene that was never in any of the books, but one that I’m so glad was added into the movie because it both fleshes out her dad’s character and deepens the themes of family and loss that run throughout the story.
3. The sister feels
There’s a scene towards the end of the movie between Margot and Lara Jean that made me straight up weep at all the sisterly feels. As someone who has an older sister who is likewise her best friend and who struggled when said older sister moved away to college, this scene of the two sisters talking about what the past year had been like without the stability of their best friend/sister really struck close to home.
Again, not every sister scene from the book made the jump to the screen, but I was really impressed with the way the movie managed to stay true to the themes of sisterhood and family while also giving us a fantastic fake dating romcom storyline. These three characters really felt like sisters — with all the closeness, bickering, honesty and love that that relationship entails (those of you who have sisters know what I mean). Lara Jean’s fantastic and evocative scenes with Margot bookend the movie, while Kitty is wonderful throughout the entire thing.
2. The Hot Tub Scene
Honestly, I really have nothing to say about this scene except: OH MY GOD IT IS HONESTLY IS SO SO GOOD Y’ALL I’M??????
Just come find me on twitter and scream with me about it once you watch it.
1. The chemistry between Noah Centineo and Lana Condor
This movie is only successful — as an adaptation and as a rom-com — if the chemistry between the two leads is both genuine and palatable.
And lucky for us, this movie is wildly successful because the chemistry between Lana Condor and Noah Centineo is SO! DAMN! GOOD!
I’ve already waxed poetic about Noah Centineo’s performance, so let me take a moment to highlight what an amazing job Lana Condor did as Lara Jean in this movie. Lara Jean is incredibly lovely and so likable, but in the hands of a lesser talented actress, she’s a character who might easily fall into caricature. Fortunately, Lana Condor imbues Lara Jean with all sorts of subtlety, making her an individual who’s quiet but not easily pushed around, who has slightly offbeat interests without being eye-rollingly quirky, and has the quiet confidence to both stick up for herself and learn from her mistakes.
She does such a fantastic job at making Lara Jean someone that we like immediately and root for throughout the movie, one that we eventually want to shake a little bit and say, “Of course Peter actually likes you, Lara Jean — why wouldn’t he?!”
In fact, that’s what makes the romance in this movie so good — not just the chemistry between the two actors, but the fact that Noah Centineo and Lana Condor play Peter K and Lara Jean so incredibly well that we desperately want them to end up together. Every scene between these two crackles with chemistry, and they both do such an amazing job at every kind of scene that Lara Jean and Peter have together, whether that be an easy, affectionate chat in a diner, an emotional confession about the loss of Lara Jean’s mother, or a hot and heavy makeout in a ski lodge hot tub.
I’m so incredibly pleased that we got these two talented actors to play such beloved parts. Believe me, Lana Condor is Lara Jean and Noah Centineo is Peter Kavinsky, and I can’t wait for every book fan to see them together in this film!
Here are five of my favorite lines to make you even more excited for ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’
- “My life was a mess but…I could clean my room.”
- “You have the references of an 80 year old woman.”
- “He looks at you like you’re a sexy little rubik’s cube — he can’t quite figure you out but he’s having a lot of fun trying.”
- “It’s weird — and somewhat off-putting — to be congratulated for accepting a note and having an ass pocket for someone to stick their hand into. But I guess that’s where my life has taken me.”
- “Can you maybe just admit that some part of you doesn’t want everything to be a fantasy?”