I loved the first Kissing Booth movie and I think I must have watched it thousands of times. Since watching it, I’ve read all of the books in the series, the main one, the two on-the-side novellas and the newest: “The Kissing Booth – Going the Distance”, which is what this film is based on.
For those who don’t know, the Kissing Booth storyline follows Elle, a teenager going through the struggles of high school along with her best friend Lee. Born on the same day, at the same time, Elle and Lee spend all of their time together and still try to abide to a list of rules for their friendship that they created when they were six. One of those rules clearly stated “Relatives of best friends are off limits”, yet Elle can’t stop herself falling for the hottest and most popular boy in school, Lee’s older brother Noah – or Flynn as he is most commonly known. The first film explores Elle growing up and her relationships with the Flynn brothers as a Kissing Booth set up by Elle and Lee causes Elle and Noah to fall for each other whilst Lee is left in the dark.
After lots of drama and Elle and Noah’s relationship being revealed, the film ends with Noah leaving to go across the country to Harvard, and the second film starts with a reminder of where we left off. Elle and Lee are starting senior year and Noah is off at Harvard. It’s extremely hard for Elle to maintain a long distance relationship as she constantly remembers Noah’s bad boy reputation, which affects her more when she hears about Noah’s new close friend, Chloe. However, there is also trouble back where Elle is, as new boy Marco becomes the talk of the school and Elle becomes close with him. It’s all a very deep plot, with so many different aspects occurring at the same time throughout the film, Lee’s girlfriend Rachel feeling jealous of Elle and Lee’s relationship, Marco and Elle getting closer as they prepare for a dance competition and Elle’s fear of Noah and Chloe’s relationship with him being all the way across the country.
The whole film is based around whether Elle and Lee’s relationship can survive as they apply to colleges and whether Elle and Noah’s relationship can survive the long distance. Also, there are subplots involving a dance competition, Rachel’s jealousy and the college applications. There is so much going on at the same time but I found it easy to follow. On the other hand, not all of this happens in the book. For starters, Marco is Levi in the book and Chloe is Amanda. There was no ‘Dance Dance Mania’ competition nor did Elle go to Boston to see Noah. I guess no movie can ever be directly the same to the book but even though the subplots were really different, all this extra detail made the film so enjoyable. It was definitely better than the first but I may be a little biased when I give it 4.5/5. I had high expectations as this series is one of my favourite film and book series. It met them all, so of course I had to give it a high review. So, if you are in need of a romance with drama and comedy, a happy pick-me-up full of twists, turns and fun, then the Kissing Booth 2 is a good choice. With all the drama and fun of Elle’s hectic life, you won’t be bored!
6.3
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