It’s like: any other Nicholas Sparks movie…the BAD kind.
Stars you’d know: Channing Tatum (Public Enemies, Step Up), Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia), Richard Jenkins
Their tagline: What would you do with a letter that changed everything?
My tagline: Letters only tell half the story.
Verdict: Eh, not so much.
I love romantic stories, I’ll admit it, I’m a sucker for them. Watch me ball my eyes out at The Notebook or A Walk To Remember. These are the Nicholas Sparks movies that I love. And Dear John had so much potential for my tears: Channing Tatum (cutie) as a soldier on leave and Amanda Seyfried (cutie) as the girl that falls in love with him. Anything that has to do with falling in love and soldiers usually tugs at the heartstrings. And they write letters to one another? Sign me up. This one, however, left a lot to be desired. First things first…I did enjoy the first hour. The first hour, the cuteness factor and the falling in love, even the “I have to do my duty so send me letters” thing was cute. The secondary storyline played by Richard Jenkins made it all the more enjoyable. But then, get to 1:15 in and…well, I don’t want to give it away. But let me put it this way: Never before has a movie made me WANT to read the book. And this is what this movie did for me. They spent so much time investing my interest that by the time they got it, they tried to force too much on the viewer to digest. I felt like huge chunks, that were probably well-written in the book, were just left out of the script to make the movie shorter and Hollywood-ized. Only problem with that was, by the end, I was so disgusted with the fact that huge plotlines were just thrown at me without any warning, that I left the theatre with a bad taste in my mouth. This movie had a lot of potential because I think these types of movies hinge on the chemistry of the actors, and while the chemistry was there, the extra chapters weren’t.
Just throw it into the BAD Nicholas Sparks movies, i.e. Nights of Rodanthe.
