Note to self: don’t choose to watch a cute teenage rom-com alone on Valentine’s Day. It won’t make you feel any better, especially not when the film centres around a love triangle. You can’t even get one person to text you back; Lara Jean (Lana Condor) can get the most popular boy in school and her childhood crush to respond to actual love letters.
P.S. I Still Love You is the sequel to the 2018 film To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, starring Lana Condor and Noah Centineo and directed by Michael Fimognari. After Lara Jean’s sister released her privately written love letters to all her past crushes, this second film depicts the love triangle formed when one of them – John Ambrose McClaren (Jordan Fisher), Lara Jean’s childhood crush – responds to her letter and the two of them end up volunteering at an old people’s home together. It also has a deep focus on Lara Jean’s relationship with her now-boyfriend Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) as they struggle to navigate the early days of teenage romance.
The film is cute and enjoyable but it’s not ground-breaking. It’s the type of film you’ll put on at a girly sleepover or when you’re hungover on a Sunday morning. It’s fun, with lots of colourful imagery and fantastic costumes that give the high school love story that optimistic air that any good romance should have. It simultaneously feels like this dream scenario – something that is definitely the overarching feel of the first film – yet Lara Jean is so ordinary and relatable. She’s awkward and unsure about dating one of the most popular boys in school whilst also trying to figure out if she still has feelings for John Ambrose all the years later. She’s an attainable character type in a situation that you wish you could be in.
Ultimately, the film does what it sets out to do. It adds to the plot of the first and develops all the central characters (shoutout to Anna Cathcart as Lara Jean’s sister Kitty for having some fantastically funny one-liners) whilst staying true enough to the original Jenny Han book series, which is sure to satisfy old fans. It’s a lighthearted story that ends with a very cute resolution and makes certain viewers will be looking forward to the final instalment, due to be released next year.
3 stars
Image: Movie DB
Betty Wilson is a screen contributor at Forge Press.
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