On February 12, 2020, as Valentine’s Day crept up and couples prepared to flood all Social Media with pictures and captions expressing love for their significant other, Netflix released “To All The Boys: P.S. I Still Love You,” for all of those who’s V-day plans consisted of avoiding those social media. Because what better day to spend the one day a year in which you feel like the only single person on this planet than to cuddle up in your bed, eating junk food, watching a cheesy rom-com about something that just simply would not happen to someone like you. A round of applause for Netflix’s marketing team, please.
The movie is a continuation of “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before,” and both are based on Jenny Han’s sequel. After the first release, fans went wild, and the movie became a prominent topic of conversation amongst the media. And when the news of the second movie being produced came out, everyone anxiously awaited its release.
Now to give you some background, the movies are based on the life of a sixteen-year-old girl named Lara Jane (LJ). She is a hopeless romantic who writes love letters to all of her crushes but never intends on sending them, in order to put her feelings somewhere other than just her head. But now, what’s a good secret without anyone to spill it? LJ’s younger sister Kitty actually mails out the letters to the boys which they are addressed to, and after some twists and turns and some little white lies, LJ scores her dream man and her highschool’s jock, Mr. Peter Kavinsky himself who is played by the one and only, Noah Centineo. In the first movie, LJ and Peter spend some time fake dating; however, in this second movie, LJ and Peter are now officially official, and we get to see their relationship embark.
However, things could never quite go so smoothly as John Ambrose, another one of LJ’s love letters from the first movie, decided to actually answer her letter. That’s right, pen to paper and a shipping stamp. And though LJ thought she could ignore it, there’s no escaping this love triangle for John ends up volunteering at the same place as her. Like I said, a totally relatable movie.
While Peter and LJ have undying chemistry and their story is every girl’s dream, they do not actually have much in common. But hey, I guess opposites attract, right? John, on the other hand, appears to have the same foundation as LJ; I mean, he did actually write her back a letter after all. He is also not a big fan of partying and would rather spend his time volunteering in a retirement home with LJ. Though because of this triangle, the movie had all the potential to give off the same effects as the first one, producers seem to have forgotten about the little details which make girls fall head over heels.
As someone who read the whole trilogy and who counted down the days for this release, I did not feel the same effects as I did in the first movie. There was no real genuine connection between me and the characters because I did not feel like I felt the struggles or the growth of both relationships. Instead, I felt like another bitter single on Valentine’s Day, rolling my eyes at LJ as she had to pick between two perfectly good men. Now don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie and couldn’t think of a better way to spend my Valentine’s, but whereas I spent days re-watching and talking about “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before,” I just don’t think the second movie did it any justice.