 "Photo: AllMoviePhoto.com")
Two and a half out of five stars.
Dear John is a movie based on the book by Nicholas Sparks, the author of The Notebook, so it is no surprise that there are a startling amount of similarities. Boy meets girl in the beautiful setting of South Carolina, and boy and girl fall in love. The boy only has a father, girl comes from a wealthy family, boy goes off to war, boy and girl are torn apart and when they meet again the girl is already committed to another man.
Dear John and The Notebook do differ in that Dear John does not have quite as compelling of a love story as The Notebook. Nor does it have an amazing soundtrack that can bring out the emotions that are lacking on screen. The movie adaptation of Dear John is a simplified version of the novel: The movie version is set in South Carolina, as opposed to North Carolina in the book. Dear John starts out in the spring of 2001 with John Tyree (Channing Tatum), former bad-boy-turned-American soldier who is only on leave for two more weeks. Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) is a college student staying at her parents’ beach house over spring break. The two meet when Savannah’s purse is knocked off the pier and John jumps in the water to retrieve it. Over the next two weeks, Savannah and John fall in love, but it happens so fast that those watching it would not have even realized it, had Savannah and John not announced it on screen.
As John goes off to serve his country, he and Savannah decide to write letters to each other over the year he will be away. Right before John comes home, the twin towers fall, and John’s year-long term allows him to go home for only 18 hours. When he tells Savannah he is planning on re-enlisting for two more years, she is upset but it is nothing that a little “rumble in the hay” won’t fix. However, when John is overseas in Afghanistan, she breaks it off with him, although this should be no surprise as the titular “Dear John” letter is one in which a lover at war is informed that the relationship is over. Thus, John immerses himself into the war and continues to renew his contract while Savannah moves back to South Carolina. The ending is not too predictable, but it is not satisfying either.
Henry Thomas (CSI) has a minor role in the movie as Savannah’s friend, Tim, although it might be hard to recognize him under all the facial hair. Tim’s son and John’s father both have Asperger’s Syndrome, a continuous theme throughout the movie. Amanda Seyfried’s acting is not monotonous like the voice-over in the trailer, and Channing Tatum doesn’t venture far out of the usual testosterone-pumping roles he usually plays. Given that, both Seyfried and Tatum generally portray their characters well without being too dramatic or too dry. The romance could have been more believable if there were more screen time spent on the relationship between John and Savannah and less on John being overseas. The themes of war and autism may overpower the message of love, but the scenes of the warm, sunny Charleston, S.C., and its surrounding beaches make it a great getaway from this frigid Chicago weather.
Dear John is now playing in theaters. in major cities nationwide.
Be the first to comment on this article!