Dear John (Lasse Hallström, 2010): USA

Reviewed by Vee Rice. Viewed at Regal Cinemas Davis Holiday 6, Davis, CA.

Dear John,

Please return to sender.

Lasse Hallström’s Dear John (2010) is an adaptation of yet another Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name.  The film follows the relationship of John Tyree, an American soldier, and Savannah Curtis, a conservative college girl.  They meet over spring break while John is on leave and fall in love over the course of their one week together.  Savannah goes back to school and John returns to his post in Germany.  Their magical week (very Romeo and Juliet) convinces them to continue a long-distance relationship through letters until John returns one year later.  However, John reenlists after 9/11, testing their relationship.

Dear John is nothing special—just another love story.  It delivers nothing unique after following other adaptations of Nicholas Sparks novels, such as Luis Mandoki’s Message in a Bottle (1999) and Adam Shankman’s A Walk to Remember (2002).  The newest adaptation lacks the emotional charge of Hallström’s earlier film What’s Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) or the quirky charm of Chocolat (2000).  What Dear John delivers is a trite, overdone love story, which really makes me wonder, why are filmmakers still adapting Sparks novels?  Oh right—his novels adapt into perfect chick flicks.  What better way to make a chick flick work than casting a pretty boy in the lead role?  The casting crew made a perfect decision with Channing Tatum as John Tyree.  His role in the Step Up movies stereotypes him as a pretty face with no talent, while his role in G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra pigeonholes him as a military meathead.  John is a perfect blend between military man and “sensitive” pretty boy.  Everyone’s favourite Mean Girl, Amanda Seyfried, plays his love interest, Savannah Curtis.  Unfortunately for Amanda, every time she opens her mouth all I hear is, “I’m a mouse, duh.”  She tries to play a smart, conservative girl, but she cannot escape her role as a floozy.  She does try though.  The worst part is the lack of chemistry between Tatum and Seyfried.  Dear John is a love story with no love.

The film begs the timeless question, is it better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all?  To answer that, we need to pretend for a moment that Tatum and Seyfried’s performances are believable.  Okay, now that we are in Never-Gonna-Happen Land I can explore that question.  Savannah meets John, spends time with him for a week, and then decides he is worth waiting a year for before he returns to her.  If they are not physically together their first year together, is that even a real relationship?  My vote says “no” on that proposition and say the entire movie is a waste of time.  They do not see each other over the course of most of their relationship, and spend copious amounts of time trying to piece together John’s failing relationship with his dad.  The film really tries hard to add depth with subplots.  John loves his father, specifically because he is his father, but does not like him much otherwise.  John’s father has Asperger’s—a mental condition that Savannah understands much better than he does, and she tries to help John understand his father.  When John’s father falls ill, he truly learns, or is supposed to learn, that it is more important to love—his father—and lose him, than to have never loved his father at all.

With a weak storyline, ineffective acting, and a tired theme, there is no wonder why Dear John falls short as a movie.  Where a carefully constructed love story about a U.S. soldier and his girl back home should tug at the hearts of its viewers, this movie lacks the appeal to make its viewers feel anything.  Dear John is a pathetic attempt to romanticize a war the majority of Americans do not support.  John feels his duty to America outweighs his promises to Savannah.  Of course, John stills plans on marrying her, but he has to fight the good fight first.  The filmmakers try to give John depth—a poorly structured history as a bad boy, alienation from his father, and an absent mother, but Tatum’s mediocre acting and a lack of real character development keep the viewer from making any connection or caring about the little growth John actually makes as a character.  All I got out of Tatum’s performance is “Aw, he’s pretty.”  Amanda’s terrible acting rivals Tatum’s own.  Her portrayal of Savannah desperately tries to prove not all blondes are dumb (or slutty): Savannah volunteers to build houses over her spring break, helps her neighbor take care of his Autistic son, and generally establishes herself as a “good person.”  Wait, this sounds a lot like a Mandy Moore film I remember.  Maybe there is no difference between characters adapted from different Nicholas Sparks’ novels.  There is also little difference in theme.  A Walk to Remember (that Mandy Moore film I was just thinking of!) also deals with the concept of lost love.  It is a common theme, and a well-made movie can get away with telling us the same story we have all heard a thousand times before, but Dear John makes the theme boring and cliché.  Dear John probably appeals to the military wives and girlfriends out there who chose to put themselves in the situation where their lover is gone most of their relationship, but for the majority of ladies out there, this movie is a waste of 105 minutes of life that at least I, demand back.  The lack of female interest is a telltale sign that men are not going to be running to the box office to see it with their friends.  This chick flick isn’t even good for chicks.  The best part about the movie is staring at Channing Tatum (preferably on mute) for an hour and a half.  So, if you really need to cry your eyes out to a good Nicholas Sparks romantic drama, rent Nick Cassavetes’ The Notebook (2004) and save your money.

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Published:
06.28.10 / 1pm
Category:
Academic Papers, Films