A Walk to Remember Plot

A Walk to Remember is a 2002 film set in mid-1990s Beaufort, North Carolina, based on the eponymous 1998 novel by Nicholas Sparks. The movie stars pop singer Mandy Moore and Once and Again actor Shane West. The movie was directed by Adam Shankman and produced by Denise DiNovi and Hunt Lowry.

The movie revolves around the lives of two very different Beaufort High School teenagers: the daughter of a Baptist minister, Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore) and a jaded, aimless high school senior, Landon Carter (Shane West).

When a prank on a fellow high-school student goes wrong, Landon is punished with mandatory participation in various after-school activities, such as tutoring to younger disadvantaged children at their sister school and acting in the drama club's final production, the spring play. At these functions he is forced to interact with Jamie Sullivan, but does not befriend her immediately. When Landon realizes that he needs help learning his lines for the production, he asks Jamie to assist him. She agrees to help him if he promises not to fall in love with her, to which he responds by saying, "That's not a problem." At school, however, Landon continues to look down upon Jamie and even mock her along with his closest colleagues.

Eventually, Landon is intrigued by Jamie's positive attitude, forgiving nature, and overwhelming faith. He is actually glad he caused the prank, because it brought him to her. Landon falls in love with Jamie even though she had previously told him not to. The two begin dating, which threatens Landon's reputation and friendships with other students. He defends Jamie on various occasions and decides to end his connections with his previous clique.

Jamie finally tells Landon that she has terminal leukemia and has stopped responding to treatments. As Jamie is hospitalized, Landon fulfills various wishes on Jamie's "Before I Die" list. Through this process, Landon and Jamie learn more about nature and love. The movie ends with Jamie's death, but only after the couple are married in the same chapel as was Jamie's deceased mother, which event topped Jamie's wish list.

The film was met with mixed reviews, with the only prominent reviewers Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-times and Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times favorably reviewing it.