"Dear John" Movie Review

“Pass the Kleenex and my refund of $10”

If you've ever been in that hopeless romantic love stage with someone, "Dear John" will be easy to relate to. The film is based off of one of best-selling author Nicholas Spark's famous novels, and directed by Lasse Hallstrom and screenplay written by Jamie Linden.

The movie overall was an exhausting love story for anyone who viewed it. The main characters in the movie, John Tyree, who is a soldier in the Special Armed Forces, (played by Channing Tatum) and Savannah Curtis, the "good girl" humanities college student, (played by Amanda Seyfried) are new but somewhat familiar faces to the silver screen having Channing Tatum been in "Step Up" and Amanda Seyfried had been in Mean Girls."

Director, Lasse Hallstrom, is a Swedish film director. He has directed an array of films such as, What's Eating Gilbert Grape," "Chocolat," "Casanova," "The Hoax," and now, "Dear John."

Hallstrom's film captures the perfect timeless romance that people yearn to watch. However, the sappy love scenes are enough for viewers to think, "Haven't I seen this before?" With "Dear John," the movie falls short of Nicholas Spark's other famous novel turned into movie "The Notebook." It seems like this time around, the attempt of making another one of Spark's novels, (which generated a lot at the box office,) left viewers with a thought of disappointment and a lighter wallet.

In regards to the entire movie, it was rather odd. The movie starts out strong where there is a bit of competition of Savannah's affection between three other guys including John. In the middle of the movie, the main focus is on John and Savannah's developing relationship, but also on the relationship that John has with his autistic father. Taking a step back and thinking of all the points of the movie, it doesn't make the film sound too bad. However, once you are to watch it on the screen and see it all unfold, it seems like there is too much going on at once. There are other relationships that are playing out on the side. For example, Tim and his son Allan, John and Mr. Tyree, Savannah and Tim, and Savannah and Randy. It would have been better to just focus on John and Savannah's relationship. Towards the completion of the film, it was almost as if the writer had run out of an idea for the story line and left viewers confused as to how it ended.

This movie touched upon topics that were fairly sensitive such as autism, going off to war, betrayal, and death. Out of that laundry list of emotional situations that would pull at any one's heart strings, any of the scenes played out that were previously mentioned was bound to make anyone cry.

In regards to the emotional impact of this movie, get ready for an emotional roller-coaster. The well thought out constructed lines that are spoken between the main characters are pure genius. For example, in a scene where the two characters are sitting on a park bench in what looks to be a small and intimate grassy field overlooking the ocean, John says to Savannah, "All I know is I want to stay here with you for as long as I possibly can and I need you to tell me what to do...what do I do?" followed by the two characters holding each other in a teary embrace as the strings section of an orchestra begins to play into the scene. The music used throughout the film enhances every moment of that "warm and fuzzy" feeling that one would get when wrapping themselves in a fleece blanket and sipping hot chocolate near a fire place.

If someone were to ask, I would not recommend this movie. I'd suggest to that person to go and watch or re-watch "The Notebook" because they'd get the same effect without having to spend ten dollars for a movie ticket. Overall, there was too much hype, too much publicity, and too high of expectations that were placed, but not completely fulfilled.