Review: To All The Boys Always And Forever, A Fond Adieu To Covey And Kavinsky

Review: To All The Boys, the magic of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is about to be revived. The final segment of the America author Jenny Han's rom-com trilogy, released on Netflix on 12 February, just before Valentine's Day.

Lara Jean Song Covey isn’t (probably) keeping a secret stash of love letters anymore. We know this as she sits down to pen a letter to her “Dear Peter” from Seoul, while Gee by Girls Generation plays in the background. You see this is a noteworthy aspect, for the beginning of the song lyrics are “Listen Boy! My First Love Story”.

The Korean-American high school girl, Lara Jean, from Han’s young adult romance novel, has reached Korea, for spring break. With her father Dan (John Corbett), his girlfriend Trina (Sarayu Blue), and her sisters Margot (Janel Parrish) and Kitty (Anna Cathcar), Lara discovers her mother's home country. And how we love seeing Covey in Korea, singing karaoke to K-pop songs. 

The film which is the last instalment of the series continues to narrate the love story of a high-school couple - Lara and Peter- the protagonists of the prequels, To All the Boys I've Loved Before and To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You. The aforementioned films had the audience gushing over them, rising the stake for the recently released third film in the series.

The threequel of the rom-com has the protagonist stuck in a different dilemma this time. Earlier, she was in a quandary over choosing a boy. Now that she has found Kavinsky, Lara yearns for getting into college to begin 'their future'. The beloved couple plans to get into Stanford after graduation.

Meanwhile, the ones who have been deemed the perfect couple by the fans, are having trouble over remembering the day they met and the fact that they don’t have a song. Well, the real “trouble in paradise” unfolds when Lara’s application to Stanford is rejected, where she dreams of staying with the love of her life, Peter. Poof! Now that is gone. How would this high school romance survive long distance?

The third part of the movie series directed by Michael Fimognari, who also helmed PS I Still Love You, revolves around that very question. We see Covey and Kavinsky, the endearing couple, growing into a pragmatic one and getting out of the 'high school zone'. Lara moves to New York, the city she falls in love at first sight, after being accepted into NYU.

In the previous installments, the characters survived and saved their love by choosing each other over everything else. Now that they need to choose between love and career, the cards seem to be falling apart. 

Lara and Peter played by Lana Condor and Noah Centineo respectively, bring out every bit of emotion felt by the characters on the screen. Kitty, Lara's younger sister has become more opinionated over the three films and we love her more (Also, Kitty has discovered boys). Also, what we see is the rift between Peter's father and him as the former tries to win over his child.

With the ending, everything seems to be crawling back to the core. It builds up for a great union in the last part of Netflix's 2018 romantic comedy series. 

To All The Boys: Always And Forever brings the story full-circle, bidding the adored couple a sweet send off. However, the film kind of fails to convey the "always and forever" suggested in the title when it comes to this young love. Where the previous parts in the trilogy dealt with conflicts, within themselves and between each other, the said film lacks in that aspect. The mushrooming drama out of the conflict here and doesn't quite match the expectations. Yet, what our characters find at the end is a "meet-cute" "their song" and love barring distance in between. 

The views expressed are the author's own.