Dear John (Review)

DEAR JOHN
(2/05/10; Drama, Romance)
Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Henry Thomas, Richard Jenkins, Keith Robinson
SCR: Jamie Linden; based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks
DIR: Lasse Hallstrom
MPAA: PG-13 for Some sensuality and violence.
1 hour 45 mins
BOX: $76,626,086

A little forbidden romance, some broken promises, a whole lot of fate getting in the way and eventually something tragic happens. Dear John is the story of John Tyree (Tatum), a young soldier home on leave, and Savannah Curtis (Seyfried), the idealistic college student he falls in love with during her spring vacation.

If this is your idea of a good time, this is all you. I’m not exactly sure when I checked out. It might have been around the fifth or sixth music montage or the point at which I realized this plays exactly like the parody of one of these melodramatic flicks.

It’s the kitchen sink approach: this has no less than an autistic kid, a war and a sick dad. The great Richard Jenkins plays the dad, and that’s usually enough to make a movie worth the price of admission. Not this time. (Screen Gems)

— DENNIS WILLIS

Author: Dennis Willis

Dennis Willis is an award-winning producer, TV host, producer, director, editor (he preferred Avid until a torrid affair with Adobe Premiere, and the rest is history), author and film critic (print and radio). Dennis produced and hosted the TV programs Reel Life, FilmTrip, Soundwaves (1983-2008) and produces the annual Soundwaves Xmas program. He is currently the film critic on KGO Radio in San Francisco, and a member of both the San Francisco Film Critics Circle and the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

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