I came to this movie wanting to watch how young people today approach love and its meaning within the context of their preset religious and contextual environment but after watching the first 30 minutes realised that what I was actually watching was more akin to a public health announcement then a study of true love and its meaning to the youth of today.
The religious symbolism did not add to the movies message, if anything detracted from it, its constant moral pandering to the conservative "no sex before marriage" lobby skewed what could have been an insightful view into the life of a teenage women, torn between her ideals of true love and the real world.
For the most part this movie just did not chime with the reality of what its like to be a teenager or young person in our society today. Even though set in a modern high school the "kids" just did not seem to act as they do normally, rather it felt like we were in a time warp or alternate reality of how teens would act in the 1940's or 50's a very rigid, almost unreal feel to the action. Perhaps what annoyed me most about this movie was the cruel way in which it extolled its holier than thou attitude commending those enlightened enough to still be virgins while casting a dark devilish light upon those who lead a different perhaps less virtuous young persons life.
Perhaps to be fair I should add that the acting was above par for the main actors, however given the script and the heavy bias towards religious overtones without a smidgen of reality really just meant that it was an amazing achievement I actually sat through the entire movie instead of switching off and going to sleep.
The religious symbolism did not add to the movies message, if anything detracted from it, its constant moral pandering to the conservative "no sex before marriage" lobby skewed what could have been an insightful view into the life of a teenage women, torn between her ideals of true love and the real world.
For the most part this movie just did not chime with the reality of what its like to be a teenager or young person in our society today. Even though set in a modern high school the "kids" just did not seem to act as they do normally, rather it felt like we were in a time warp or alternate reality of how teens would act in the 1940's or 50's a very rigid, almost unreal feel to the action. Perhaps what annoyed me most about this movie was the cruel way in which it extolled its holier than thou attitude commending those enlightened enough to still be virgins while casting a dark devilish light upon those who lead a different perhaps less virtuous young persons life.
Perhaps to be fair I should add that the acting was above par for the main actors, however given the script and the heavy bias towards religious overtones without a smidgen of reality really just meant that it was an amazing achievement I actually sat through the entire movie instead of switching off and going to sleep.
