This DVD features a look at the world of young adult literature (a plus), which made it easier to understand why this film really only gets a 6/10 from me. The movie is based after 2 young adult novels which deal with a young woman's relationships with friends and family, but more importantly, it deals (no pun expected) with getting used to different things in life: love, death, and many normal life changes. It is the start of many new teenage understandings, and this movie is good at seeing how universal and "common-day" some of these "problems" are for this girl.
Mandy Moore (this is the first film I've seen of hers) plays a cutie-pie role (like I've heard is every character she's ever played) so there wasn't much of a stretch. She actually does a good job at acting as this "character." I watched what she thought of her character on the DVD behind-the-scenes extras, and she thought that her character would more like to listen to indie artists than a geeky Mandy Moore record...props go to Moore to admittance. The rest of the actors/actresses did a fairly standard job at acting interested in being in a film with Mandy Moore...that's all, though.
So the movie is very average, touching on too many other films based on young adult novels without any kind of artistic license used. It would've been interesting in a different kind of light, I think, but from where it stands, rent it only if you're curious and don't mind the standard teenage girl film too much.
Mandy Moore (this is the first film I've seen of hers) plays a cutie-pie role (like I've heard is every character she's ever played) so there wasn't much of a stretch. She actually does a good job at acting as this "character." I watched what she thought of her character on the DVD behind-the-scenes extras, and she thought that her character would more like to listen to indie artists than a geeky Mandy Moore record...props go to Moore to admittance. The rest of the actors/actresses did a fairly standard job at acting interested in being in a film with Mandy Moore...that's all, though.
So the movie is very average, touching on too many other films based on young adult novels without any kind of artistic license used. It would've been interesting in a different kind of light, I think, but from where it stands, rent it only if you're curious and don't mind the standard teenage girl film too much.