To All the Boys: Always and Forever Review: A Satisfying Love Letter to Lara Jean’s Legacy

With a beginning as good as To All the Boys, it’s reassuring to have an ending as satisfying as Always and Forever.

The final film of the franchise has its ups and downs, like any relationship. But that sincere joy that you feel when viewing the world through Lara Jean’s candy-coloured lens of romance and intrigue never loses its allure in these final hours.

Always and Forever reminds us that film franchises are fleeting but a good love story is forever.

Netflix’s final installment in the To All the Boys trilogy follows Lara Jean Song-Covey (Lana Condor) and Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) as they struggle to keep their relationship from crumbling under the pressures of senior year. This final chapter sees Covinsky trade in fake dating contracts for college commitments as they attempt to answer the tough question, is this love always and forever?

The film does its best to pull from the source material while producing a goodbye that caters more to the film versions of Peter and Lara Jean we’ve come to know.

The story’s direction may not always cater to the plot with the care that it should but from a rom-com perspective, their love story is intoxicating, reckless, and exasperating in all the ways epic romances should be.

Even with Lara Jean and Peter taking on more intense subject matter and ditching their fake-dating trope for full-on dating commitments, they always find time to remind us of why we fell in love with this unlikely pair in the first place. In their darkest hour, there’s still plenty to root for.

Condor and Centineo are still a force to be reckoned with and without a love triangle standing in their way, the two are practically unstoppable.

Their chemistry still manages to makes the more frustrating moments of this college admissions fiasco swoon-worthy with Peter staring at Lara Jean like she’s the world, and Lara Jean determined to make all outer conflicts bend to their love.

After all this time, it’s sweet to see Lara Jean and Peter choose each other again and again.

It makes me immensely happy to see the two go on equally important and separate paths throughout Always and Forever without separating themselves from the romantic chemistry holding this film together. Lara Jean’s journey of finding herself in New York and Peter’s reluctance to rekindle his relationship with his father are equally important subplots.

It’s also incredibly important that Peter be the one to write the final love letter. Not only does this come full circle from Lara Jean’s love letters in the first film, but we get to see those little notes he used to write to LJ on a much larger scale.

And let’s be honest, Peter Kavinsky recounting the first time he met Lara Jean in a freaking love letter? That’s an ending worthy of the To All the Boys legacy!

LJ and Peter are not, however, the only love story in this final chapter that deserves praise.

Lara Jean and her sister Kitty have never had the most sincere relationship, what with LJ being practical to a fault and Kitty being the type of sibling to ignore all boundaries in the name of getting her introverted sister a date. Yet the two have had to spend more time together in the absence of Margo and reluctantly, they bonded.

It’s not something you initially notice given how reluctant Kitty is to admit her sister’s departure is worth getting worked up about. That is until Kitty breaks down in a rare moment of vulnerability and admits that she’s going to miss her sister a whole twelve that we find our hearts shatter into a thousand pieces.

Of all the relationships to come out of this franchise on top, I am glad it’s Kitty and Lara Jean. Their slow-burn sisterly bond is easily the most entertaining dynamic of the films.

Unfortunately, Always and Forever is not without its disappointments. It’s clear from the opening scene that the people behind this film don’t know quite what to do with Lara Jean and Peter now that they are together and the other love letter recipients have been all but disposed of.

Ultimately, this sequel lacks the energy of the first film. The kind of energy that instantly takes you back to that time in your young-adult life where the only two things that mattered was who you liked, and who liked you.

That fast-burning teenage love that started with Lara Jean almost running Peter over with her car is all but burned out in this final chapter, reducing them to sensible shells of a passionate couple at times.

I stand by this film being a better representation of our two lead lovers than P.S. I Still Love You, and generally a better-structured story. That being said, is it too much to ask that we get back some of that “hand in the back pocket of your jeans” passion?

That’s not to say this film doesn’t dazzle with its stunning cinematography and signature pastel colour palette — it is plenty dazzling!

The entire plot is cushioned by lavish trips to Korea and New York City, where hot teens running amuck and elaborate rooftop parties distract one from the greater issues on display.

Sure, social media feed montages and mouth-watering shots of cafe food do not make the heart grow founder of Covinsky’s predicament, but it does give us a thick slice of that delicious teen whimsy.

It’s all too easy to fall in love with Lara Jean’s city adventures and yearn for a plane ride to a faraway place.

And given that many of us haven’t travelled farther than the grocery store in months, I am perfectly fine with being duped by this film’s shiny exterior. It’s okay for a film to be a tiny bit superficial when it looks this good.

There’s something to be said about crafting the perfect ending. 

Always and Forever may struggle to make it to the finish line but the film’s determination to give Lara Jean and Peter the fairytale ending they deserve is commendable.

There’s something undeniably powerful about watching two people on opposite sides of the country stare out the window at their future and see only each other. It’s safe and a little sappy, but it’s also comforting and warm in all the ways we need our entertainment to be right now. 

This ending allows us to project our own wants and desires onto Peter and Lara Jean’s relationship, and all I really want is another adorable highschool romance as unique and as fulfilling as this.

What did you think of To All the Boys: Always and Forever? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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To All the Boys: Always and Forever is streaming now on Netflix.

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