Movie Review: Dear John

Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, Dear John is so beyond formulaic, that anyone who has ever seen a romantic drama will figure out everything from the opening scene. Endless montages, beautiful faces, dreamy stares and a super thin plot will make you yearn for the credits. John Tyree (the very hunky model turned actor - Channing Tatum), a U.S. soldier, meets Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried - Mamma Mia) , a college student, while home on leave during spring break, 2001. It is love at first sight. John introduces her to his father (Richard Jenkins), an obsessed coin collector who’s suffering from, what appears to be, Asperger’s Syndrome, a mild form of autism. When the 9/11 tragedy takes place, John must go back to fight overseas and feels sad to be separated from the love of his life. He and Savannah promise one another that they will communicate through letters in order to keep their love alive. When John goes off to war; Savannah bonds with his autistic father. But after corresponding back and forth through many letters, she suddenly writes her very last letter simply stating that she has moved on with her life. Ugh! Ring a bell? This is what happens when you take sappy but moderately respectable source material and turn into an insipid screenplay. Even the young teenagers, who are the target audience for this movie, were laughing. Jamie Linden, (who wrote the screenplay for We Are Marshall - also not great), fails to bring any of these characters beyond a cliché. The one exception is John’s father (Jenkins). Time spent with him was the most enjoyable. Tender and sweet; we love this man. The film ends with every possible corny, mushy, contrived trick in the book to elicit tears. None of them work. And in case the director, Lasse Hallstrom (he did direct the fantastic, Cider House Rules), doesn’t know it, the audience can only handle so many montages before we start checking our watches. It runs for 1 hour and 45 minutes but feels much longer. Forget it. See The Notebook again if you’re hungry for Sparks’ material.