This Vs That: A Walk To Remember Edition

We have two contenders by the same name in this round of This Vs. That. In one corner, the 1999's A Walk to Remember, written by Nicholas Sparks and in the other corner, the 2002 movie adaption of the book starring Mandy Moore and Shane West. Who will be our winner?

Let's start by listing some differences from the Movie to the Book. 

The story in the book is 1998's Landon narrating about the year that he was 17 back in 1958, so most of it takes place in 1958. I thought the movie was set in 2002 but I read somewhere that it was 1998. I seriously tried to verify this looking for the scene where Landon is looking at Jamie in the yearbook but no date found. 

In the movie, Jamie won't share the number one thing she'd like to do on her list with Landon. In the book, it's one of the first things they really talk about: her desire to get married in church with everyone she knows there. In the book, this was one of the things that bugged me when Landon was trying to come up with what he could do for Jamie, as he felt there was more he could do other than spending time with her and reading the bible together. 

In the movie, Landon joins the Drama Club because he got in trouble and the principal made him, and he was given the lead role for the play by the teacher. Whereas Book!Landon was in drama class hoping for an easy A. He was one of the only two boys in the class. He isn't in the lead role of that play until Jamie asks him to be the lead as the other boy had a very bad stutter which might ruin the emotions of the play, which was very important that year and Jamie wanted it to be perfect for her dad.

That leads us to the fact, in the book, the play they are performing is written by Jamie's dad, Hegbert Sullivan, the town's reverend, as a replacement play for Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol as Hegbert believed that God would send an angel and not ghost to help someone gain the Christlike spirit of Christmas. In the movie, the play is written by another member of the Drama Club, so it doesn't have as much emotional meaning to the story, though it does have a really good song, so I forgive it for that. 

In the movie, Jamie does volunteer to be a tutor and is a part of a few clubs at school, but in the book, she is much more charitable, spending a lot of free time with orphans and raising money on their behalf. It was nice to have her bond with Landon over that and give him a chance for Landon to make her happy by donating almost all his money to her. 

In both, Landon gifts Jamie a new sweater, as she is almost always seen wearing the same one. However, it was a Christmas gift that he bought with the very last of his money after he donated over $200 to the orphans. In the movie, the sweater is Landon's first attempt to show her that he really means it when he says he wants to spend time with her. 

In the movie, Jamie is the one to hang out in the cemetery at night in order to use her telescope opposed to Landon and his friends being rebels hanging out in the cemetery to share stupid stories, drink beer, and, of course, lest we forget, eat boiled peanuts. That was a very important detail for some reason, as the beer was more of an afterthought. 

In the movie, Jamie had known she was sick for two years and had just stopped responding to the treatments. In the book, Jamie had just found out about her illness the Summer before their Senior year, the year that she would be able to play the lead in her father's play. Given the difference in the eras of the book, it would make sense how quickly Jamie got worse in the book because there probably wasn't the medication around to help prolong her health. 

In the book, Landon's parents are still married, though his dad is not around much as he's usually in D.C. as a congressman. In the movie, his parents are divorced and it appears like his dad is remarried and he's a doctor as Landon runs to him after he finds out about Jamie. In both, Landon's relationship improves with his father due to his father helping out with Jamie's situation to make her feel more comfortable. Not much else is said about Landon's family in the movie, whereas in the book, Jamie's father had a bad history with Landon's grandfather, which also added some tension to Landon and Jamie spending time as everyone knew Landon's grandfather was basically a criminal, living off other people's money. 

These are just a few of the changes between the movie and the book. However, in my mind, there is a clear winner. Normally, for me, the book would be the winner as you usually get more story and emotion out of it, but in this rare case, the winning of This vs. That is 2002's A Walk To Remember! This one I would watch over and over again. However, I have no plans to reread the book for a third time as I couldn't stand book!Landon at any point without Jaime. He was shallow and annoying before and whenever he wasn't with her. I like Movie!Landon way better in every way.