To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before arrived on Netflix on August 17, 2018, with a tagline that doubles as its plot: “The letters are out.” Susan Johnson directs, Sofia Alvarez wrote the screenplay, and the film runs 100 minutes. It is a teen romantic comedy built on one clean mechanic — a private box of unsent love letters gets mailed — and it commits to that mechanic without apology.
Trailer, via Still Watching Netflix.
The Closet Where the Letters Wait
Lara Jean Song Covey, played by Lana Condor, is a shy high school junior. She writes letters to boys she has strong feelings for, then locks them away in her closet. She never sends them. One letter addresses Josh Sanderson, played by Israel Broussard, her childhood friend who dated her older sister Margot, played by Janel Parrish, until Margot broke up with him before leaving for college.
Lara Jean’s feelings for Josh resurface. She chooses not to pursue him. Instead she writes a postscript to his letter and puts it back in the closet.
Then she falls asleep on the couch while hanging out with her little sister, Kitty, played by Anna Cathcart. Kitty sneaks into her room and finds the collection.
Peter Kavinsky Gets a Letter
The following Monday at school, Peter Kavinsky, played by Noah Centineo, confronts Lara Jean. He received her letter. She faints.
She wakes to see Josh approaching with his own letter. In a moment of panic, she kisses Peter to throw Josh off, then runs away. She later meets Lucas, played by Trezzo Mahoro, another recipient, and learns he is gay. She realizes every letter has been mailed.
Peter follows her to a diner. She explains the situation and tells him the kiss was meant to dissuade Josh. Peter proposes they fake a relationship — to make his ex-girlfriend Gen, played by Emilija Baranac, jealous, and to convince Josh that Lara Jean is over him. She agrees after they negotiate the dos and don’ts.
Over the next few months, the whole school, along with their friends and families, believes they are dating. Peter and Lara Jean spend more time together and find themselves conflicted by their developing attraction. Gen expresses her jealousy to Peter.
Condor and Centineo Carry the Contract
The film’s central trick is that the fake relationship is a contract, and the audience watches two people negotiate its terms. That is the whole engine. Condor plays Lara Jean as watchful rather than mousy, and Centineo plays Peter as easygoing rather than cruel. Neither performance asks for pity. That matters, because the premise could easily slide into humiliation.
The supporting cast does the work of a small town. Madeleine Arthur is Christine, Lara Jean’s best friend and Gen’s cousin. Andrew Bachelor is Greg, Peter’s friend. John Corbett is Dr. Daniel Covey, Lara Jean’s widowed father. Julia Benson is Ms. Kavinsky, Peter’s mother. Anna Cathcart’s Kitty is the one who started all of this.
The letters are out.
That tagline is the entire first act. It is also the film’s best joke: the thing Lara Jean feared most is the thing that forces her to live.
The Diner, the Closet, the Negotiation
The diner scene is where To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before stops being a premise and starts being a movie. Lara Jean tells Peter the truth, and he answers with a proposal instead of a confession. That is a smart inversion. Most teen romances hand the protagonist a love interest; this one hands her a business partner, and the romance has to grow out of the terms.
The dos and don’ts matter more than they look. They give the film a structure that is not just a question of whether two people will end up together. It is a question of what they agreed to, and when that agreement stops being convenient. When the whole school starts believing the lie, the lie becomes a life. The film knows that is the actual danger.
The closet is the other piece of machinery. It is a private archive, and the film treats it as one. The letters are not just confessions. They are a record of who Lara Jean was at different ages, and when they go out, she loses control of that record. The film does not overexplain this. It just lets the box sit there.
What the Sequels Inherit
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is the first installment in what became a film series. It was followed by To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You on February 12, 2020, and To All the Boys: Always and Forever on February 12, 2021. A spin-off series, XO, Kitty, was released on May 18, 2023.
That is a lot of afterlife for a film that runs 100 minutes and resolves its central contract. The sequels exist because the first film built a world people wanted to stay in — a school, a family, a diner, a group of friends who all know each other’s business. The film adapts a 2014 novel of the same name, and it treats the source as a world rather than a single plot.
The cast list carries the weight of that world. Alongside Condor and Centineo, the film includes Janel Parrish, Anna Cathcart, Madeleine Arthur, Emilija Baranac, Israel Broussard, and John Corbett. Smaller roles — Kelcey Mawema as Emily, Julia Benson as Ms. Kavinsky, Joey Pacheco as Owen, Peter’s younger brother — fill in the edges.
Where the Film Stalls
Not every piece of the machine turns. The middle stretch, where the fake relationship runs on schedule, leans on montage and on the audience’s patience. The film knows the destination and takes its time getting there. Some of that time is earned. Some of it is just runtime.
The bigger issue is that the film’s stakes stay small. Josh is a problem, Gen is a problem, but neither is allowed to become a real threat. The film is warm, and warmth is not the same as tension. The third act arrives gently, and the film resolves its contract on its own terms rather than against real opposition.
That is a choice, and it is a defensible one. To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is not trying to be a hard movie. It is trying to be a kind one. It succeeds at that. The question is whether kindness is enough to make the 100 minutes feel necessary rather than pleasant.
The Score
This is a good film with a great mechanic. The letters are the best idea in it, and the film uses them well — not as a gimmick but as a way to force a shy character into the open. Condor and Centineo have the chemistry the contract requires, and the supporting cast gives the school and the family enough texture to make the lie believable.
What holds it back is that it never quite finds a second gear. The diner negotiation is sharp. The fallout is soft. The film is content to let its characters be likable, and likability is not the same as drama. It is the rare teen romance that trusts its audience to understand the rules of the game, and that trust is worth something.
To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before is worth the watch, and it is worth the sequels it produced. It is not a film that will surprise you. It is a film that will hold you, and there is a difference. Metacritic scores it 64 out of 100.
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