Starring: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins, Henry Thomas, Braeden Reed, Luke BenwardDirected By: Lasse HallströmWritten By: Nicholas Sparks (novel), Jamie Linden (screenplay)Grade: B+

It’s pretty much a given that any Nicholas Sparks’ adaptation is going to be a touching, tear-jerking, epic romance. A Walk To Remember and The Notebook are arguably among the most moving and beautiful love stories of our generation. It seems like in most romance movies, I’m really not all that convinced that the characters actually love each other even if I do like the characters individually. In Sparks' stories there is no question though. In fact, you feel for their passion and the love they have towards each other so intensely that the film becomes an emotional excursion that feels completely genuine and refreshing. While Dear John isn’t quite in the same league as A Walk to Remember and The Notebook, it comes pretty close. This one is definitely a tear jerker and any film that can effect me that much on an emotional level has clearly done something right. The characters are extremely likeable and the story tells us a heartbreaking romance, but even aside from this it’s a good story about family, selflessness, and life.

John (Tatum), a soldier on leave meets Savannah (Seyfried), a college student home for spring break. When she drops her purse in the water while at the beach he dives in and gets it for her. Savannah invites him to her house for a barbeque that night. They end up hitting it off and they go on an official date the next night. Savannah is eager to learn more about who John is and where he comes from. When John mentions his father, Savannah insists on meeting him that night. Mr. Tyree (Jenkins) has social anxiety and mostly stays at home examining and polishing his coin collection. John was excited by his hobby as a kid, but is now mostly embarrassed over his father’s obsession towards it. Savannah is very warm towards Mr. Tyree and talks with him about his coins.

The next day John learns a little more about Savannah. She takes him to the charity project she has been working on with other people in the community, building a house for a family that lost their house in a storm. Her neighbor, Alan (Reed), is a young boy with autism. Learning what he goes through, Savannah is inspired to go to school longer to study teaching children with mental disabilities so she can open a summer camp for autistic kids. She wants to give them a place where they can be free from their inner battles. John is amazed that someone so good, kind, and remarkable could be interested in him.

They spend every moment they can over the next two weeks together. They know that they both have to get back to their lives. Savannah has to go back to school and John has to finish up his service. They’ve fallen in love in these two weeks amazingly enough and neither one of them wants to live a life without the other. John just has to make it 12 more months than they can be together. In the mean time, they write each other back and forth, telling each other about what’s going on in their lives so “It’s like they never left each other”. Things are difficult for them, but they are given faith that they will make it through. Then 9/11 happened. All of the other soldiers are eager to serve and protect their country, making John feel like not re-enlisting would be a betrayal. This separates John and Savannah, prolonging the wait until they can be together and putting a strain on their relationship. Savannah has a lot to deal with and doesn’t know where to turn while the only thing helping John go on is the letters from Savannah. They stop coming though. John doesn’t get any explanation for months and when he does it nearly kills him. No matter how much time they spend apart they know they’ll always be a part of the other.

Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried are a major part of what attracted me to the film in the first place and their performances didn’t disappoint. Channing Tatum is really hit or miss. His better performances were those in A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints, Stop Loss, and She’s the Man while Step Up and even G.I. Joe and Fighting were far more flat and shallow performances. Luckily, his performance in Dear John can be added to the better half. He brings out a flawed man, but one who is striving to be better, especially since Savannah walked in to his life. As always Amanda Seyfried is completely dazzling with incredible charisma and charm. She is really a tremendously talented young actress and especially recently that she has been given chances to prove herself in starring roles she has shown how well she carries a film. Seyfried and Tatum have great chemistry together, really making you feel for both of the characters, and long for them to be together.

I have to mention Richard Jenkins as well who gave an incredible performance as John’s father who shows subtle but clear signs of autism. He clearly cares about his son even though he doesn’t know how to reach out to him. That’s why he clings to his coin collection, as a way of holding on to a time when his son looked up to him rather than being embarrassed by him. Jenkins really brings a genuine and gentle approach to the character, nailing certain mannerisms and ways of carrying himself, never seeming over the top, but bringing to life one of the most interesting characters in the film.

One thing that makes Dear John stand out is it isn’t just about the love story, but the characters themselves. We learn to love the characters so much and their give and take with one another, making us want for things to work out between them. John is a man that has made mistakes, but is trying to do things right this time. He still has trouble connecting to his father and craves for a bit of normalcy in his life, unsure of how to understand or deal with his father. This is part of the reason why he falls so hard for Savannah, she gives him understanding, love, and is the rock that allows him to be the man he strives to be.

Savannah is goodhearted and enjoys helping others, giving them hope that they might have lost otherwise. She loves that she can give John that hope. Still she is a flawed character the same way John is. That is one thing I think could have been handled a little bit better in the movie, seeing her side of things just as we saw John’s. We typically only get her perspective through the letters or when they are together. When the letters stop we don’t see things through her character anymore until John goes back home. So rather than seeing her as flawed and all of the pain and conflict that she is dealing with we see her as betraying John when they seemed to be so good for each other. Luckily, she isn’t painted as an enemy after this one choice.

Dear John does a great job of telling us a heartwarming love story while still not having things be too perfect. Pretty much from the beginning there are complications if they want to be together. Even when making the best of a difficult situation things don’t always end up going as good as when they started. Life gets in the way, which does happen. What first seems like a betrayal ends up being understandable to try to live her own life and help others who may have lost the ability to live their own. Still, that initial love was no illusion, it was something real that couldn’t be replaced no matter how they tried to move on.

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