Dear John

Dear John is the latest film to be adapted from a novel by Nicholas Sparks the author of The Notebook. It’s clear that Dear John is trying to create the heart wrenching feel of The Notebook and disappointingly it fails miserably। The plot had an interesting premise in that John (Channing Tatum) meets Savannah (Amanda Seyfrield) while on two weeks leave from the army, they immediately fall in love and struggle to maintain their relationship, the only way possible to them,by writing letters to one another. Although this seemed like a unique story, this film just wasn’t strong enough where it mattered. When the film was going through the motions it was reasonably watchable, however at the points it attempted to hit your raw emotions it simply had no impact, even surrounded by women at this screening (this type of films target audience) I noticed not a single viewer crying at any point. This was in part due to the director Lasse Hallström who although he had his moments of visual flair at times did not make it clear at times what was happening on screen, and surely storytelling must be a directors top priority. Blame must also be put at Tatum’s and Seyfeild’s door who have either been miscast or are simply not good enough for leading roles. Dear John is simply not worth watching unless you are a big fan of these films and even then I would wait till it’s shown on TV.