Netflix hit big with 2018’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, a feelgood teen rom-com with bucketloads of charm, and a central couple – Lana Condor’s Lara Jean Song Covey, and Noah Centineo’s Peter Kavinsky – that set certain corners of the internet ablaze. Where that film built to an air-punching final shot and the fake relationship between the two finally becoming official, this sequel – based on the second book in Jenny Han’s trilogy – throws a complication into the mix: John Ambrose McClaren (Fisher).
Yes, we’re into love triangle territory here, with another recipient of Lara Jean’s crush-fuelled letters responding with a letter of his own. After spending a film waiting for the perfect relationship to begin, P.S. I Still Love You sees Lara Jean discover there’s no such thing – her new romance facing unexpected pressures, whether it’s her anxieties around Peter’s previous relationship experience, a re-framing of a major event from the first movie, or that aforementioned new arrival.
Or, is he an old arrival? McClaren, largely glossed over in the first film and here re-cast from its mid-credits cameo, is a much older flame of Lara Jean’s – the childhood friend who now sports a do-gooder spirit and a preppy style right out of Non-Threatening Boys magazine. If his letter back to Lara Jean isn’t enough to shake her existing relationship, the pair unexpectedly end up spending more time together after separately volunteering at Bellevue old folks’ home.
For the most part, P.S. I Still Love You keeps up the charm and visual style of the previous film.
In presenting roadblocks in the relationship that the first To All The Boys spent so long establishing, P.S. I Still Love You can’t help but feel less joyful than its predecessor, more a teen melodrama than a snappy high school rom-com. But incoming director Michael Fimognari and returning writer Sofia Alvarez (here co-scripting with J. Mills Goodloe) make a compelling case for Lara Jean’s growing attraction to John Ambrose, without fully tarnishing her relationship with Peter. Plus, this second chapter further explores Lara Jean’s Korean-American identity (she dons a ‘hanbok’ dress for a Korean New Year family gathering), offers bigger laughs to younger sister and funniest character Kitty (Anna Cathcart, who deserves more screen time), and a sweet new romance for her father Dr. Covey (John Corbett) and his neighbour across the road. If it underuses new character Stormy (Holland Taylor), a glamorous old broad from Bellevue who dishes out advice and alcoholic drinks to her 16-year-old volunteer, there’s fun to be had as she introduces the ecosystem of the retirement home in a scene that echoes the usual high-school-cliques-in-the-cafeteria sequence.
For the most part, P.S. I Still Love You keeps up the charm and visual style of the previous film, and for those already invested in the characters it offers welcome new explorations – particularly a surprising scene between Lara Jean and Peter’s mean girl ex Gen (Emilija Baranac). If rom-com sequels are difficult by definition (how do you not ruin the feel-good factor?), it’s a largely successful effort sure to have fans eagerly awaiting confirmed threequel To All The Boys: Always And Forever, Lara Jean.
