To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You Review

February 15, 2020 at 3:55am
By Jason Stettner

To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You is a Netflix Original film that continues the story of one girl that embarrassingly had her old love letters sent out to those she cared about before. With this being the second entry, we’re greeted by Lara Jean (Lana Condor) once again as she begins dating Peter (Noah Centineo). Things are going well, that is until she gets a reply from another letter which was from an old potential smart flame John Ambrose (Jordan Fisher).

This largely drives the plot as she ends up volunteering at an old folks home, the same as John. There’s certainly a chemistry, and as trials mound up with Peter, Lara is forced to consider her options. In a life that was once romantically empty; having too many men fall all around her is a staggering situation. This certainly doesn’t hit the heights of the original film, but it does have some charm and fun that definitely reminded me of what came before. It also dives into certainly elements about dealing with romance at that age, and trying to repair friendships that seem lost.

It has some emotional elements to it, at the same time the plot is a bit weak. It’s quite generally generic, and not necessarily as original as the first one was. It still had some fun, and used the cast roster well aside from her elder sister being just a cameo basically. It still flowed well, got to the point and at the same time didn’t have quite the depth that the first one did have.

This was well shot, it looked pleasing and they had some very dynamic situations going on that certainly dipped into what you’d expect from a romantic film. There were some good jokes, and perhaps some lingering plot lines. This really did feel like a middle entry, at the same time it did also carry that charm from the original.

Condor once again takes point here, being a good lead. They had some neat locations, at the same time there wasn’t much to this. It was very light in terms of content focusing in on a very exact point in opposition to the more ambitious first movie. I did like the addition of Stormy (Holland Taylor), but she really didn’t get much development in this. They sort of set up a background, but didn’t go further than that.

The Conclusion

To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You is an alright continuation, acting as just another step instead of being a standalone film. It very much leans on what came before, while carrying a rather light narrative and leaving a lot of lingering branches to this tale. It still had the charm of the original, with some good laughs and striking moments. At the same time, it certainly wasn’t as expansive or unique as the first one was. It actually came across as generic at times, with hurdles that didn’t feel too intensive.

The story was just really light on content, and despite having a great selection of characters it didn’t necessarily use them as well. It was a good look at attitudes of kids at that age, and I think it hits that audience well. At the same time it didn’t really go too far in making this feel like something fresh. It added in what felt like an out of nowhere extra love interest and didn’t really dive into why his presence made such a divide aside from a superficial reason.

To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You Review at Home with Streamed Viewing
Content Access was Provided by Netflix

Rating Overall: 5.6