Despite the potential of being this year’s The Notebook (2004), Dear John, fails to live up the mass hype surrounding yet another Nicholas Sparks novel turned-chick flick.
Sparks’ novel has the perfect storyline for the ultimate love story for girls to take their significant other to without having to drag them into the theater.
Although the movie carries the same basic plot, for some reason, fails to have the same mesmerizing qualities as the novel.
The story centers around Army Major John Tyree (Channing Tatum, G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, Step Up) and college student Savannah (Amanda Seyfried, Mamma Mia!, Mean Girls<.em>).
They have a meet cute on a dock in Lenoir, North Carolina where the heroic John saves Savannah’s purse from the crashing surf. Savannah invites John to a bonfire at the beach house where she is staying for the upcoming two weeks, and the rest is history.
The screenplay is filled with a few passionless love scenes, which leave the audience feeling a bit awkward rather than engaged in the plot.
Even if the screenplay had more entertaining moments, the true problem with the movie lies with the relationship between the co-stars.
The chemistry between Tatum and Seyfried is anything but that of star-crossed lovers facing a tumultuous future. They are about as full of passion and love as a person who has to spend Valentine’s Day solo.
In spite of the lukewarm chemistry between the lovers, Tatum gives an amazing performance as the former troublemaker who straightens out after enlisting in the army and becoming a member of the Special Forces unit. In a scene with John’s father, played by Richard Jenkins (Burn after Reading, Step Brothers), Tatum expresses more emotion than he has ever before on screen. Jenkins’ character suffers a stroke, and has a tender moment with Tatum’s character, showcasing the best acting of the entire movie.
Unfortunately, this scene is the only one that sparks emotion from the audience.
Seyfried and Tatum rarely give the audience the feeling of romantic tension, even at the height of their supposed love affair:;when John is stationed in an unknown area of the globe and Savannah continues to write letters.
When John returns to his team overseas, Savannah goes back to school and they continue to write letters, pouring their souls into their work. As an audience, it is very difficult to appreciate the passion that is present in the original novel during the letter writing sequences because the narration no longer exists in the movie.
In a final letter, Savannah tells John that she is engaged to another man; someone who John knows from the two weeks they spent together. When John ventures home to aid his dying father, he discovers the identity of Savannah’s husband and attempts to forge a friendship with the newlyweds.
A series of events follow that show the true character of Tyree, and viewers are left feeling confident that there are still good guys out there.
Unlike most Nicholas Sparks movie adaptations, the ending is not the same as the novel, and therefore completely disregards the main point of the story.
"I finally understood what true love meant...love meant that you care for another person's happiness more than your own, no matter how painful the choices you face might be,” is the final line from the novel.
It is disappointing that the movie lost so much of its meaning by not including this simple line from the novel in any part of the film.
A lackluster screenplay, coupled with poor acting on the part of Seyfried makes it easy to justify seeing Dear John maybe once with a significant other this Valentine’s Day and then forgetting about it once it comes to DVD.
Two out of four stars, Running time 1:45, Now Playing at the Birmingham 8.
