DEAR JOHN
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Dear John brings together a all plausible and desirable cast–the poetic Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum–with a tried-and-true regretful tract which will have a brand new era of movie fans and lovers reaching for their hankies. Director Lasse Hallström (The Cider House Rules, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, My Life as a Dog) again proves his apt doing of immature actors portraying feelings and emotions far over their years. His direction, along with the stellar performances of the cast, will have Dear John slow in the mental recall prolonged after viewing. Tatum plays a infantryman home on leave (the John of the title), when he meets Savannah (Seyfried), a college student. The dual might not have been seeking for love, but love finds them anyway. Then the Sep eleven attacks happen, and John is ripped in between love for Savannah and avocation to country. Because this is an instrumentation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, there will be play and heartbreak, and Dear John doesn’t step easily in this romantic battlefield. But there’s a sweetmeat in the performances, generally Seyfried’s, which transcends the almost-cookie-cutter impression outlines since to the actors. Also estimable of discuss have been ancillary expel members Richard Jenkins (as John’s quiet, autistic dad) and Henry Thomas (as Tim, a singular father who goes to scarcely unfit lengths to equivocate violation the heart of his son). See Dear John with an open heart, and know which it will be deeply touched. –A.T. Hurley
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I want to see this movie so bad, love love love CHanning Tatum!!! It’s gonna be good
Rating: 5 / 5
DEAR JOHN
STARRING: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins, Henry Thomas, D.J. Cotrona, Cullen Moss, Gavin McCulley and Jose Lucena Jr.
WRITTEN BY: Jamie Linden; based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks
DIRECTED BY: Lasse Hallstrom
Rated: PG – 13
Genre: Drama
Release Date: 05 February 2010
Review Date: 25 February 2010
Writer, Nicholas Sparks is a jerk! What is this guy’s deal? Does he have a personal vendetta against love and all of us? Why does he feel the constant need to put us through emotional misery every time he puts his pen to paper? And how is he capable of making us care about his characters so much? I guess he’s a damn good writer.
If you don’t know Nicholas Sparks by name, chances are you’ve seen at least one of the movies adapted from his novels: Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe and his latest heart-breaker, Dear John.
Dear John has virtually one purpose: introduce us to two people who fall in love, and then take it all away and leave us devastated. Much like every one of his previous films, Dear John succeeds at this effortlessly.
I have a pet-peeve for movies that contain things that are too `on the nose’ and Dear John has a big one. The main character’s name is unsurprisingly John! I wonder if he’ll get a `Dear John’ letter at some point. Um, yeah – he will. When you’ve gagged down all of the cheese from this cheesy cliché, we’ll continue. Go ahead; I’ll wait for you… all set? Good. It’s still a good movie; I’m just having a little fun.
Channing Tatum stars as John Tyree; a soldier in the Special Forces, home on leave for two weeks in his small home-town on the coast of South Carolina.
Richard Jenkins gives us yet another outstanding performance as John’s father. There are some touchy moments between him and John that will make any guy want to give his dad a call after the film. Jenkins plays a single father, who makes his son meatloaf every Saturday and lasagna every Sunday. If that’s not sweet enough for you, he also has a hobby he’s is infatuated with, that he started with John when he was only eight-years-old. You want to be this poor old guy’s friend; he’s a real sweetheart.
John meets a young woman in a way that I somehow didn’t consider cheesy. She drops her purse into the ocean from a pier. John dives in to get it while the poor schmuck pursuing her, foolishly chooses to run all the way around the pier, to retrieve it. Needless to say, John beats him to it and is deemed the hero.
The dame is Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried); a reserved college student with a good heart, and an urge to help others less fortunate.
Savannah and John develop a relationship over a two week span. They fall in love through a series of very entertaining montages. Then before we know it, act one has come to an end and John must go back to his military life, overseas.
John promises to return to her in 12 months, when his commitment with the Army is up, and Savannah promises to reserve her heart for him. It’s puppy love, and yes it was only two weeks, but the filmmakers and the actors especially, make it work. We care for them instantly.
As anticipated, they begin to write constantly to one another. Their letters reminded me very much of what it was like being overseas in the military and having a lady waiting for you stateside. When you’re over there, mail is like gold. It’s more valuable than food, water and sometimes even air. It keeps you going and it keeps you alive. The filmmakers captured this and other Military characteristics, brilliantly.
One of the things in the film I found the most enjoyable was the reveal that this story takes place in the past. As far as I could tell, they never reveal the time period to us in the beginning. When 9/11 happens however, we realize we are back in 2001. John must decide between returning home to Savannah as he promised and extending his enlistment to serve with his unit.
He’s given 48 hours of leave and uses it to fly home to South Carolina. One of his comrades reminds him and us, that he will spend more than half of that time flying to and fro; leaving him with a mere 18 hours to spend with his sweetheart. He is thankful to have even that long with her.
Having a woman (or a man, for our ladies in uniform) come running up to you and jumping into your arms at the airport upon returning home from a deployment, is everything. It’s your inspiration to get through each day. Every soldier and sailor dreams of this. The film showed this perfectly, and the scenes with John on his leave with Savannah were good ones.
Channing Tatum was sensational. This is at least the third time he has played a soldier in the Army, and he is more than convincing. His acting is progressing quite nicely and this film shows it gracefully.
Seyfried’s character wasn’t given as much attention. John is the main character, but Savannah was equally as important to the story and something was missing. Regardless, Seyfried plays her very well. She has a promising future ahead of her.
The first two thirds of the film are very entertaining. But from the time Savannah sends him his `Dear John’ letter; it takes a turn that I just wasn’t pleased with.
They want us to believe that after six long and lonely years of being separated, these two still have feelings for one another. Yes this is possible, but the film fails to sell it. They only had two weeks together and their six years of separation are beyond vacant. A year or two at most, would have worked. Spark’s The Notebook tried this tact in a similar way, but executed it far better.
It was unclear why they even got back in touch after so long anyway. That’s bad enough on its own, but it also has one of those endings where you are left thinking, `what – it’s over? Just like that?’
As disappointing as this was, Dear John more than exceeded my expectations of a teenage romance flick. Director Lasse Hallstrom is a visionary master, particularly when it comes to shooting films engulfed in romance. Having brought us classics such as What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Chocolat, The Cider House Rules, An Unfinished Life and Casanova, just to name a few; you could surely find less appealing ways to spend an hour and thirty-nine minutes.
Rating: 4 / 5
I can’t say enough how pleased I am with how this film evolved. I knew what to expect, ’cause I cheated and read the end of the novel. I’m not a Sparks reader. So I went in with his ending in my head. Channing has grown by huge leaps since his first entry onto the big screen. But it was all the characters who drew me in and yes, Sparks had to have provided the structure for these great characters. I cried and cried. You just have to see the film to understand. Then years ago, I wouldn’t have understood the characters motivation, wouldn’t have accepted it. But “Dear John” sure helped put things in perspective for me. And so, I have to thank Mr. Sparks for part of this new acceptance of reality.
Rating: 5 / 5
I actually went into this film with low expectations and basically got what I expected, which is not much for a film that is being released in the middle of winter.
This film involves a romance between John and Savannah. John is a soldier on leave in the US army who meets a college student by the name of Savannah. During the course of a whirlwind courtship that takes over the time of two weeks morphs into a love that lasts a lifetime.
I found the plot for the most part predictable and many of the lines cheesy. Though despite this I still found myself drawn to the characters. There was a scene towards the end of the film in which I was glad to see that the characters retained their integrity when they could have easily have done the opposite.
Obviously the film is aimed at teenage and twenty something girls. Which I am not, but I have a bit of a crush on Channing Tatum since he reminds me of a someone else I like. Channing Tatum is not a very good actor and each time I see him I am just convinced that he is playing himself. A big hunky lovable good old boy from the South. But still I find him endearing for his humility and his ability to play a masculine character without the annoying `huff and puff’ machismo that too many young Hollywood actors have.
Who surprised me the most was Amanda Seyfried, as Savanah who I have come to know mostly from her role on Veronica Mars. She had a lot of prescence and strength. I really think that she would have been well cast as the character Daenerys for the HBO series `A Game of Thrones’. She would have made a great Dany.
Anyway I would recommend this film to the fans of the two leads and romance novel afficianados.
Rating: 2 / 5
I really like “Dear John”. It’s intense, full of feelings and the actors play really hard to transfer the story to people’s eyes and hearts.
I could see myself a lot on it, hence my personal story in life, re: army, loss of the greatest love, etc, are my own story, with its own peculiarities.
Those, though, who read the book and look forward to watch a real interpretation, will probably be somewhat disappointed… Since the book has a completely dynamic, nobody can fit a 300+ page into 100 minutes.
It’s worth to watch, mind-opened and try to understand the life of those to are in service overseas for their countries.
Rating: 5 / 5