Reviewed by Kate Rodger
Dear John, oh how I hate to write. But write I must, and here I go.
Dear John is the film which knocked Avatar off its number one perch at the US Box Office, which shows the power of the tear-jerker. In fact, all I really need mention in order to send all you diehard romantics directly to your nearest cinema, is that Dear John is written by the same bloke who wrote The Notebook (Nicholas Sparks). Job done.
Okay so here’s a confession. Often accused of being a cold-hearted wench devoid of a single romantic thought (and according to one particularly incensed TV3 viewer, I was surely “in dire need of a boyfriend”), I do in fact have a copy of The Notebook in my DVD collection, and it does, without fail, do what The Notebook was born to do – make a grown woman cry like a baby. It also makes me think unprintable thoughts about Ryan Gosling, but that’s not really relevant.
I digress. I guess the point I am so vaguely making, is that I am not devoid of romantic thoughts, and I am just as open to a good cry as the next woman. But for me Dear John just didn’t have the goods.
Buff Channing Tatum (Stop-Loss/Step up) is Special Forces soldier John Tyree, on short home leave from the army and back home staying with his father (played by the wonderful Richard Jenkins, Oscar-nominated for The Visitor). There Buff John meets the impossibly sweet and gorgeous Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfriend), and they fall in lurve. Two weeks later he heads back to his unit, and they both promise to write ALL THE TIME, which they do.
As the title suggests, one day everything changes, the good ole “Dear John” letter arrives, and by crikey it looks like it’s all over. Or is it?
So will you cry? If you really want to, you probably will. Did I cry? Rather unsurprisingly, I did not. However, there was one redeeming feature of this otherwise colourless romance, and that was found within the father/son relationship. It was here where, in the end, the far more moving love story could be found.
Two and half Stars.
Dear John
:: Directors:Lasse Hallström
:: Starring: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried and Richard Jenkins
:: Running Time: 108 mins
:: Rating: M - Contains violence and sex scenes
:: Release Date: April 22, 2010
:: Trailer: Click here
source: newshub archive
