Avis des critiques

The playful “will they or won’t they” dynamic has kept the series moving since Lara Jean first learned that Peter received her love letter. Even if it seems like it's wearing a bit thin by the events in “Always and Forever,” the affectionate energy between stars Condor and Centineo keeps the sparks flying.

It’s an enjoyable if sometimes overwrought return to form, as its central pair are buffeted by a sanitized though still thorny college admissions process.

After the sour diversion of P.S. I Love You, Always and Forever returns to the brio of the first film. Condor and Centineo strike sparks again, and this time director Michael Fimognari and screenwriter Katie Lovejoy take ample space to add physical comedy grace notes and — crucial in a romantic comedy — jokes.

While the movie contains some genuine heartfelt moments, the thread connecting them all is flimsy, and the core conflict is overdone. By focusing on a clichéd dilemma and doing nothing to make it particularly unique, Always and Forever concludes the trilogy on a flat note.

Whatever it is, some fundamental alchemy has leached out of this trilogy. Some under-the-radar willingness to get weird and sad — a willingness that made the straightforward trope-driven structure of that first movie’s happy ending feel earned and lovely and lived-in — has disappeared.

Regardless of what you think about where the film chooses to leave its teenage lovers, this is a series that’s always been greater than the sum of its rom-com parts.

To All the Boys: Always and Forever is the most mature, and thus, most entertaining of the three films because it highlights the choices Lara Jean makes for herself instead of the choices she makes about other people.

In many ways, by poaching material from the second novel for the first movie, 2018’s “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” took Lara Jean’s story where it needed to go. The sequels have been unnecessary but not unappreciated, and this one gives fans a chance to spend more time with the couple (even if some of us may question whether she chose the right guy).

The Instagram aesthetic of the series might not be totally rooted in the real world, but the good heart of the franchise will endure long past the social media looks that inspired it.

“Always and Forever,” directed by Michael Fimognari with candy-cute sets, distressingly stylish costumes and vivacious cinematography, doesn’t have a hint of cynicism. Like Lara Jean herself, this bright-eyed pubescent lovefest is an earnest romantic, admiring every rote route to “I love you.”

Where To All the Boys wore its heart on its sleeve, Always and Forever wears its production value. Everything about it is as name-brand as the universities LJ just might deign to attend... Mercifully, the film ultimately makes the right decisions for its heroes... despite the messy road getting there.

It’s a fitting end to the series not just as a closing chapter to its protagonists’ high-school lives as they move on to college, but also as an admission that the franchise has run out of things to say.