A Walk to Remember

Smell cheese? Close; this film actually reeks of more formula than a Levittown nursery. Count the clichés: The popular high-school senior punished into the lifestyle of a drama geek; the square girl with beauty gradually revealed; her forbidding reverend father; the unscripted onstage declaration of love. Had enough formula? Ready to spit up? Well, get comfy, baby, there's more in the bottle, from the terminal-disease victim's list of wishes becoming reality to that sentimental last wish, the wedding. Peter Coyote's smooth performance is the only lullaby in this colicky sob fest. Run, don't walk, to any available alternative.