To All the Boys: Always and Forever Review

April 2, 2021 at 2:50pm
By Jason Stettner

To All the Boys: Always and Forever is a Netflix Original film that concludes the story of one girl that embarrassingly had her old love letters sent out to those she cared about before. With this being the third entry alongside the last one, we’re greeted by Lara Jean (Lana Condor) once again as she continues dating Peter (Noah Centineo). The two are at a bit of a crossroads with high school ending and their path to post secondary education beginning.

Both are feeling out where they’re going to head. It seems like they have a fairly steady path set, with Peter being particularly locked in. Lara Jean is however feeling things out, waiting for replies and still discovering where she wants to go. This of course is creating drama between the two as they both try to decide what’s going to happen. This is definitely a step up from the previous entry, and while it doesn’t necessarily have the most realistic of conclusions it’s still a rather charming love story and a welcomed ending to this series.

It would definitely be interesting if we could see this continued down the road when they’re aged up a bit, that would be entertaining. A sort of, To All the Boys now we’re dealing with adult life out of school. A whole new trilogy possibly! Whatever the case, there’s some laughs and charming moments as our lead discovers the wonders of new locations and opportunities while still trying to balance the love that was created over this wacky trilogy of films.

This is fairly well shot, framing some really charming scenes that certainly lit the romantic mood. There’s a great supporting cast here and everyone seems to really get a good sort of conclusion in terms of things working out.

I say that in the sense that you get the direction that everyone is headed in, and they have fun with it. It’s definitely interesting to see the cast age and grow over the entries, and I can’t believe that I’ve seen a whole trilogy of movies go by already since I’ve watched since the start.

It’s almost bittersweet that more won’t be on the horizon as they’ve been a bit of fun to see progress. Condor once again is the heart of this series and delivers a well balanced performance. You see the sad points, and also the joyful high ones as she discovers the wonder of possibility in where she heads out to learn.

The Conclusion

To All the Boys: Always and Forever is a solid conclusion to this trilogy, being a great improvement over the second one and an interesting way to close out this romance made from awkward letters. It was a satisfying collection of films to watch, and not a bad trilogy to enjoy if you’re watching them all at once.

It wasn’t necessarily ever anything too deep, but I think it provided an interesting story. It hit some of the elements of modern youthful love, especially with the aspect of how things change once you begin to leave the safety of regular high school life. I don’t feel that the ending was particularly realistic in terms of how these two ended up, but who knows I suppose.

Anything could realistically happen, and being a film it’s nice to just enjoy the elements of a good romance working through things and dealing with challenges sometimes. Not always dreary, though this did bring some sorrowing lows as Lara Jean tried to make it all work and sometimes that’s just impossible.

To All the Boys: Always and Forever Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Content Access was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 6.3