Dear John

Dear John

John (Tatum) is a young Soldier home on leave when he meets Savannah (Seyfried) who is home from college for the summer just by chance on the beach.  They strike up a conversation and a very smitten John asks her out on a date.  So begins an intense yet very short lived romance.  When it's time for John to leave they decide that they will stay together and Savannah will wait for him to finish his military service.  They exchange letters back and forth to stay in contact and keep their love alive.  Can a two week love affair survive a one year military deployment?  They certainly give it their best shot but find out that sometimes love isn't enough.

• This was such an intense heart felt movie.  I immediately felt the chemistry between Savannah and John. 
• Tatum is such a good looking guy.  My, oh my!  And it's good to see that not only does he look good and can dance as we have seen him do in his other dance centered films but he can really act and carry a movie too.
• Amanda Seyfried is just a delight in this movie-and I don't normally even use that word!  She is so sweet, pretty, and kind hearted.  She plays that kind of role perfectly and that character comes shining through her blue doe eyes.
• This movie pulled on my heart strings.  I know what it's like to love, miss and worry about a deployed soldier and the pain that it brings.  But even if you don't.  Even if you just have a soft spot for love then this is the movie for you.
• Love is a tenuous thing.  Not only does it takes two people but timing is key and sometimes timing really is everything.

5/5 STARS

Just Me

Dear John

Directed by Lasse Hallström, Dear John is an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name. It stars Channing Tatum as John Tyree, a young soldier from the Army Special Forces, who falls in love with idealistic college student, Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) while at home on temporary leave. They decide to exchange letters to each other after he is deployed to the war and she goes back to College.

The film starts off in 2000 with John and Savannah meeting on a beach when her bag falls in to the sea and he heroically jumps off the pier to get it for her. The pair then hit it off and become inseparable in the two weeks they share together and fall desperately in love. This may be a bit too "whirlwind" and unbelievable for some to take, but the two leads don't do a bad job of convincing us of their fast-growing love for each other. Then again, they don't do an amazing job. Out of the two Channing Tatum is definitely the stronger actor. Sometimes throughout the film Amanda comes across as insincere and her reactions to some of the supposedly heartbreaking moments are lacklustre.
As John packs off back to the Army the two promise to write to each other know everything about themselves. The letter reading parts of the film do work well and the shots of John in the Army anxiously waiting for his next letter to arrive are good scenes. So too are the scenes between John and his reclusive coin-collecting Father (Richard Jenkins) with whom he has a rather strained relationship with. It's these scenes between father and son that (albeit very deliberately) put a lump in your throat, but at times it just feels a bit too obvious and heavy-handed. The music throughout the film is the usual  acoustic female vocalist fare designed to pull on your heartstrings.
When John returns from the army for a two-day break after his year away, 9/11 has just happened and what we then see is the repercussions of this on their relationship when he chooses to re-enlist to fight for his country. There is a change in their relationship and it’s obvious that things are not going smoothly.

The film is by no means bad, the acting is good overall but the script and directing is hit and miss in places. Dear John is obviously going to draw comparisons with "The Notebook" but I'm not sure if fans of this sort of film will feel it lives up to their expectations.

Dear John is out in cinemas in the UK from 14th April 2010

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Dear John

Not since Gone With the Wind has war complicated the lives of two Southern lovers like dear John and his adorable Savannah! However, by the end, frankly, we just don't give a damn...

One Word Movie Review: LAME

Dear John is a throwback to an earlier age where lovers wrote letters instead of tweets, when duty and honor and sacrifice screwed up people's love lives through forced separation and the agony of having to wait. In the case of John and Savannah, two Charleston lovers who discover true love in two weeks, we endure two hours of their inability to manage their military leaves and autistic summer camp aspirations. Although there seems to be simple solutions to their separation issues, Dear John uses every contrivance of personal and global coincidence to keep our two soul mates eternally adrift. Cut to tears, close-ups of handwriting, a few deaths and buckets of slow guitar ballads sung by chicks in breathless whispers and
you have this entire film summed up.

The beautiful South Carolina coast is the true star of this movie, offering the dramatic backdrop to smoldering love much like the burning of Atlanta provided for Rhett and Scarlett. Two beautiful actors (Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried) play the teary lovers, faring much better with their scenes of instant attraction and scoring far worse when asked to cry, stoically soldier on when love letters stop arriving or react to personal tragedy such as the death of a loved one.

The currency of the movie is coins, symbolizing our common bond with country and family, aging and intermingling in our pockets until, as they become rare and precious, collected an admired, each coin a history lesson of our past. Like the lost art of letter writing, coins are relics of our past, as money and words disappear into bits of electronic transactions sliding past our screens and card readers. True love bested by insurmountable obstacles like college and military service is also a relic of another era, as our world is now flat and tiny and intimate as the nearest web cam. How to deal with this? Set the story way back in 2001.

The Story

Dear John is about a soldier, wounded in battle, thinking of his dad's coin collection and his lost love as he lays bleeding in the rain. This is the opening image, but the impact is lost as John's voice drones on and on about his life as a coin, stamped out in 1980 and now perforated with two neat holes. Will he live to see his true love again? We get back to this moment later on, when we really don't care so enjoy it now at the start of the movie. From here, we go to the beach, surfing, diving for purses, two weeks of love and guitar ballads and symbolic images of a possible life together, such as their first kiss in the skeleton shell of a house - perhaps this kiss is the start of their own home together?

Alas, it is not to be because he's in the Army and she's going to college and so they have to write to each other instead. Write often and tell each other everything and, in a year, promise, promise, they will be together forever. But 9/11 changes everything for John and he is compelled to re-enlist. She drifts off to her own life, helping autistic kids with the help of her rich parents and the family homestead, an updated Tara mansion with horses and gardens and all that, but we're sure at some point our plucky Savannah will be making dresses out of the curtains as her world collides unfavorably with world events.

The lovers get together once more to fight and have sex in the stables and then, well, between sad chick songs and lots of lasagna, the years go by and we get the "Dear John" letter of the title. He gets wounded, suffers, time goes by, she gets dumpy and long-faced and in the end, no one is happy, even if they die. The ocean still looks great, though.

Of course, a story like Dear John is really not about the story. It is about the chemistry between the two lovers. Do they share the joy and ache of true love? Do we hang on every touch, every glance, every long stare. Unfortunately, the chemistry between the leads doesn't work, with Savannah too perfect (she only swears in her head) and John too stoic and reserved. We think he wants her but he's not the excitable type, I guess. You long to see them get excited and even hint at wanting to slam their beautiful bodies together but, if you can only swear in your head, what's your sex life like? Pretty tame.

Without hot sex, real obstacles or emotional chemistry, Dear John is just a good time at the beach, watching the waves and knowing another one just the same is coming along. And then another. And another. Any soon you're falling asleep in the sun with that Nicholas Sparks novel falling from your hands into the hot sand.

The Genre

The tear-jerker love story genre is scarce and usually done with one of the leads already dead. Ghost, Love Story, Out of Africa and on and on back to Romeo and Juliet and the classics of Greek tragedies are testament to the bittersweet tragic consequences of love. Couples are either too early, too late or too dead to fully commit to a satisfying, lifelong relationship.

Since Gone With the Wind and Titanic are bona-fide romantic blockbusters without the happy endings of fairy tales yet completely satisfying audiences with compelling stories and real-life dilemmas, one wonders how movies like Dear John get off the ground. Two words: Nicholas Sparks. His books mine the romantic tragedy of notebooks, letters and other written means of communication. He has written fifteen or so, and another movie adaptation is on the way this year, The Last Song starring Miley Cyrus, on another Southern beach with music as the obstacle, as if people really play the piano any more.

However, this genre is perfect for a Super Bowl weekend, opening strong as women across America insist their mates take them out to the movies if they want to "waste" all day Sunday with their silly football game. Hollywood counter programming, with a Hail Mary pass into the end zone for a big score.

The Overall Quality

If you like nice shots of the beach, sparse ballads sung by pained girls with breathing problems (including a tune by the female lead, Amanda Seyfried) and really fake military scenes shot in generic locations (he's a special forces guy so we can't be told where he's fighting - man that cuts down the budget for authentic locations) then Dear John is your kind of movie.

The sex in the stables scene has a ballad sung by a male (first one, but he's in a duet - The Swell Season's Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova). The sex itself is muted and frenzied like two dozing sloths fighting over the snooze button. The emotional barriers keeping the lovers apart are diseases: autism and cancer coupled with gunshot wounds. By the last act, you start hoping John would finally break out and march into Charleston and start kicking and grabbing ass. Instead, in his last family loss, he - wait for it - writes another letter! Then he reads it and it's the same damn letter we heard at the start of the movie. One supposes the writer and director were totally enamored with the metaphor of life as a coin, dated and stamped and beat up and collected and framed and finally sold. So tickled were they that they put it in the movie twice.

By the end, when John's leading his squad by using a coin toss (what leadership!) and Savannah's got dumpy and sad as a Basset Hound, you just want the movie to end so you can get the hell out of the theater and into the world of internet chats and songs with drum tracks and singers in a lower octave.

Movie/Market Analysis

MarketBOB’s sentiment indicators, the GQS (Genre, Quality, Story) rate Dear John an emotional BEAR. This is a lame movie trying to elicit your tears through artificial situations and cheap diseases (not just one but two). The full moon is the recurring image in this movie, with John advising Savannah how to make the whole planet disappear by holding up just one tiny thumb. In the theater, the screen is too big for that to work.

Craig Forgrave (MarketBOB)

Last updated: 2010-03-26 14:42:21 by user08

Dear John: Movie Review

Nicholas Sparks' novels is almost synonymous to romantic films nowadays. Countless film adaptations of his books are all over the place. The latest of which is "Dear John". Now honestly, we know what to expect from a Nicholas Sparks' novel or a film version to say the least - a nice, love story that does not always end on a happy note and will make you cry buckets of tears. On our count though, we have only liked half of the films based on his books. With "Dear John", can Nicholas Sparks make a positive mark on us once more or can this prove that they should just stop making adaptations of his books? Read on to find out what we have to say.

In 2001, Savannah Lynn Curtis (Amanda Seyfried) is having her spring break when she accidentally meets John Tyree (Channing Tatum) - a native of her vacation spot. They met when John dove into the water to get Savannah's bag that fell into the sea and the two jive almost immediately. Savannah discovers though that John is a member of the Army Special Forces and he has only two weeks left before being assigned to his post abroad. They spend the two weeks getting to know each other more and eventually getting into a relationship. When the two weeks are up, the two decide to have a long distance relationship by writing letters to each other. After one year of service, the two meet up again but John has grim news - he wants to stay two years longer because of what happened on 9/11.

After the success of The Notebook, Message in a Bottle and Walk to Remember, the quality of Sparks' adaptations pretty much has gone on a downhill trend. "Dear John" bewilders us - it had us going more than a majority of the film but totally blows it off in the twist towards the end. Without giving details, let us just say that it was totally weird and out-of-this-world that it will either make you see the story as unbelievable or you will really hate a certain character. In any case, it totally sucked out all the goodness that happened before it and all the drama was kaput. We do not know who to blame here, the original book narrative or how they executed it in the film. The actors were a saving grace in the movie as Channing and Amanda were beautiful together and they played their roles well (even though their characters seemed to good to be real). We just hope they're given better material. In summary, "Dear John" had its moments but as an overall package, we really cannot recommend it that much. This is not exactly the lovestory you might want to see.

Rating: 3 reels 
Why you should watch it:
- it had good portions of drama and sweetness
- if you like the Nicholas Sparks formula, then this should be a good film for you

Why you shouldn't watch it:
- really baffling twist that ruined the whole feel of the film
- very poor material for such a talented cast

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Recommendations:

Last updated: 2010-03-11 19:36:00 by user06

Review: Dear John

rating: Kudos

“Dear John” is very completely and definitely for the ladies. Full of tears, romance (a lot of it) and Channing Tatum’s bare chest, this film from a novel by tear magnet Nicholas Sparks (“The Notebook”) is without a doubt a chick flick… and it’s a good one.

Channing Tatum (“Fighting,” “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”) plays John Tyree, a soldier in the Special Forces who, one day on the beach, meets Savannah (Amanda Seyfried, “Mama Mia!,” “Jennifer’s Body”) who is on spring break from her final year in college. The story takes place in the summer of 2001. The two have two weeks to get to know each other and naturally romance occurs at just the right times.

John has a tough relationship with his father, who might be autistic. His father (“Six Feet Under’s” Richard Jenkins) collects coins, and has quite a lot of them. Savannah takes interest in John’s father while John is mysteriously uninterested in the collection. John’s father takes a liking to Savannah, and even makes extra dinner for her when the three have dinner.

The two weeks end, and John and Savannah share a heartfelt goodbye, with a promise to write to each other. John’s tour of duty is almost over and soon he will be back in her arms. Until the events of 9/11 occur. John is forced to make a decision: follow his buddies into another tour, extending his long-distance romance with Savannah, or go back home to the woman he loves.

Someone will no doubt say that John’s decision to stay is a classic “bros before hos” sort of reaction; that he really wants to stay away from all that “touchy-feely” stuff. I disagree entirely. Right after 9/11 everyone wanted to do their part. Patriotism ran rampant across the country. Suddenly, the soldiers were superheroes. And they wanted more than ever to fight. John feels he is doing his duty. But he doesn’t know the strain he’s putting on Savannah.

The movie is fine. It’s a good love story. Not great, but entertaining. I have no doubt plenty of people will cry through the movie.

That said, I must mention Channing Tatum. Tatum has given the same performance in every film he’s ever been in. He’s like a poor man’s Keanu Reeves. He picks the same role every time! I’m not dissing on Tatum’s performance in this film. The part was perfect for him. But it’s the same character from “Fighting,” “G.I. Joe,” and his upcoming film “The Eagle of the Ninth.” I guess that’s wise on his part. Do the same thing every time. This works sometimes, but I want more out of him. I’ve got enough big tough guys who can’t act.

Amanda Seyfried does well as Savannah. She’s beautiful and lovely. The part could be played by anyone else her age, but “anyone else” doesn’t have those expressive, heart-melting eyes. Hmmm… Channing Tatum: hot bod who picks easy roles. Amanda Seyfried: hot bod who picks easy roles… it occurs to me this film’s biggest draw may be the hot bods, not the characters.

Even so, I still liked “Dear John.” It melted my romantic side and kept me entertained for two hours. If anything, it’s a great date movie.

An Education

AN EDUCATION is a good movie that comes off as better than what it is because of its talented cast and the sharp, intelligent dialogue.

Carrey Mulligan is just superb in the role of the wide-eye yet smart beyond her years, 16yr old girl who falls for the silver tongue and snake eyes of an older man, played by Peter Sarsgaard, who has played this sort of suspicious characters so much that at this point, he could do it in his sleep. Rosamund Pike (whom I’ve never really thought great of really) and Dominic Cooper, are joyful, slightly deceiving, glamorous, and sad enough to form the kind of friends that would lure a teenage girl away from school.  Alfred Molina is great as the dad, and now I feel bad he wasn’t nominated for an actor in a supporting role oscar.  Olivia Williams, and the always amazing Emma Thompson, are just excellent and it makes me wish they acted more instead of just sporadically in minor roles here and there.

But this smart coming of age tale belongs to Carrey as Jenny Miller. The way she handles the role, showing us that teenagers can be smart enough to be treated as adults, but that at the end of the day, a teenager it’s still a teenager and they can easily fall into traps set by those with more life-experience.

It’s a great piece, but as a whole, as a movie and not an actors showcase, it falls short of perfect.  Grade: A-

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Dear John: Love, Savannah

Chick Flicks and date movies don't get much better than this latest film based on a book by treacly Nicholas Sparks. (So much better than "The Notebook.")


Here, our star-crossed lovers, John, Channing Tatum, and Savannah, Amanda Seyfried, find all kinds of roadblocks in their path to happily ever after. (BTW, if he looks familiar think old Abercrombie and Fitch catalogs, while she was the singing/dancing queen in the movie "Mamma Mia!")


So, here they are falling in love in the aftermath of 9/11. If that's not bad enough, he's in the military on the verge of deployment. And if that's not bad enough, his dad, played to perfection by Richard Jenkins, is a rather strange dude. Maybe autism. And if that's not bad enough, Savannah is emotionally attached to a young boy, who is definitely autistic. Is there something in the water?


That's about all the Movie Slut will divulge about this wonderful weepy. Bring tissues.

See you at the movies, The Movie Slut

Dear John- a letdown in chick flicks

Normally, I am a sucker for any kinds of romances that span years and letters, where lovers face adversity, war, and separation yet somehow end up together. I had high teary-eyed hopes for Dear John, based off the novel of the same name written by the same author of The Notebook (a fantastic tear-jerker in film form, by the way). However, I couldn't help but feel disappointed while watching Dear John. It does not follow the normal pattern of a 'chick flick' but it's diversions aren't exactly welcome. Amanda Seyfried, the blue-eyed angel of Channing Tatum's dreams, ends up breaking up with him through letter (while he is in Iraq) and marrying a character I would find completely undesireable, if I were to be in the same position. The whole three-quarters through twist in the plot is unexpected and unfitting in the story. The chemistry simmers but does not bubble between Tatum and Seyfried, and there are points in the film when the two appear to be forcing it. Was it mildly entertaining? Sure. Did this reviewer cry like a baby? Don't doubt it. But is it worth spending $10 a ticket and $15 for snacks? Not even. If you're determined to see it, rent it. Otherwise, this film is completely surpassable.

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Dear John

Autism, cancer, strokes, gunshot wounds, the catastrophic events of 9/11. All are thrown into the pot in "Dear John."

The movie has a pedigree of schmaltz. Its Swedish director gave us the maudlin, illness-themed "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" and "The Cider House Rules." Its writer gave us the horrifically botched disaster tragedy "We Are Marshall."

And the story is based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks who, in classic novelist fashion, writes the same story over and over, changing only enough details to keep from having to sue himself.

And this is the movie that ended "Avatar's" reign of dominance!

So what's it about?

Sigh...

The John of the title is a special forces soldier played unconvincingly by Channing Tatum, he-of-the-limited-facial-expressions.

His correspondent and soulmate is played by Amanda Seyfried who, and I'm sorry to say this, isn't anywhere near good-looking enough to pull off romantic roles.

Put it this way: if I were remaking "E.T.," I'd cast her as E.T.

Channing and Amanda meet in prosaic fashion on a beach somewhere in Virginia. They have two "magical" weeks together. We know they are magical because they play out in montage against sentimental music.

I don't know if I can go on with the plot summary. It's all so phony and contrived. The characters aren't real people, the story is utterly banal. The music is insultingly heavy-handed. It's just a flimsy greeting card of a movie, and not one of those clever greeting cards, either.

The two lovers end up writing a series of letters to each other. That's all you need or want to know about the plot.

War, family, class and illness conspire to keep them apart. None of these obstacles have much to do with each other. It's a tag-team effort.

As a consequence, the plot feels episodic. It consists of a string of random, implausible setbacks until, in the end...

Spoiler alert!

...our lovers end up together.

And even that is confusing. After Channing and Amanda agree not to see each other following the death of her previous husband from a convenient case of cancer (ALWAYS a plot cop-out,) we see Amanda in a coffee shop on her computer when Channing Tatum rides up on his bicycle.

Channing ties his bike to a street sign, glances at Amanda through the window and smiles. She smiles back. The end.

Dammit, movie! That's not an ending!

But that's where the movie stopped. I ran for the exit. Come to think of it, I didn't actually see any credits roll...

So it's anyone's guess how "Dear John" actually ended. If you know, please don't tell me.

SCORE

How Accomplished: 31/100

How Much I Enjoyed: 27/100

Review: Dear John

The movie is not as saccharine and neutered as the novel, but damn if you can tell a Nicholas Spark's story when you're watching one.

Amanda Seyfried--by cheer force of her natural loveliness, and amazing flowing hair (whomever did hair and makeup for this movie is a genius)--elevates the sap that's pouring out of every frame above the meandering, calculating heartstrings pulling. Channing Tatum has mastered this sort of gentle giant look to him; he's like a skulking teddy bear you wanna hug even as you see there's danger behind those eyes.  Their acting is what keeps the story going and makes the movie engaging enough to like, even as every manipulated trick in the handbook is use to get the tearduct flowing (as if). The always great Richard Jenkins is relegated to a maybe/maybe not autistic dad role and he does the best he can with the material by way of perfectly timed facial expresssions.
Let's see: we have the autistic kid that of course never, ever talks to anyone....except the new stranger in town, and the girl sees that as a sign that he's the one. Since this is also a war movie, we get some shooting, someone shot, and some "stay with me! I need a medic! man down!" action, and the endless montages set to the kind of adult contemporary music that would make you swoon, or cry depending on the montage.
There's a few twisty plot points, but nothing you haven't seen or guessed from reading/seeing a Nicholas Spark story.  This could have been just as good as THE NOTEBOOK, and it's certainly the one adaptation of his that has come closest to it, but where everything about THE NOTEBOOK felt natural, DEAR JOHN keeps manipulating its audience every now and then to the point that at times it feels forced.  Still, Amanda and Channing are a good screen couple and the movie is watchable because of them. Grade: B-

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Dear John

I really felt this movie desired to say something profound. Particularly as the ending didn't seem to specifically aim for a sentimental and teary-eyed moment as other films based on Nicholas Sparks books have done. Actually, I'll be more specific and call out "A Walk to Remember" for its watered down, flat, pathos-centered denouement. Even the very well handled adaptation of "The Notebook" sought to create some waterworks in its final moments, but that movie earned the right for that opportunity. But "Dear John" aims to end on a more thoughtful note about the timing of relationships in our lives and the affect of those timings. It wants to leave us pondering the "what if's" of life and how it's never too late to bring them back into play. The problem is that we aren't provided a story with enough depth to fully support these themes.
 
I was very thankful not to see the conventional third act that is present in movies like "The Proposal" or "A Walk to Remember" even if the rest of the movie plays out in a typical manner. The opening voiceover and montage is very effective, but any momentum you have coming off of it is killed by a rather lame inciting incident. The characters proceed to fall in love over the course of a couple weeks. Though they do have a slight argument when Savannah proposes that John's dad might have autism (why this wouldn't have been an fairly logical hypothesis to John, given his dad's behavior, I dont know), but they overcome this and begin a pen pal relationship when John goes abroad with the Army Special Forces.
 
9/11 happens and John decides to extend his time in the army. Consequentially, Savannah argues the decision claiming that she should have a say in the matter. But at this point these characters have only spent a couple weeks together in person so how can either really claim to have a decent stake in the other's decisions?
 
John reenlists and ends up spending the next 6 or 7 years in the army. All the while whatever longing these two have for each other is not truly illustrated. The movie plays out as if these are characters that have lived a chunk of their life together and are trying to hold on to it when the focus needs to be more on a longing for the potential they have for a relationship and the desire to carry out that potential. (For more on this, see "Atonement" [2007])
 
At one point it seems as if the script is going to perform a pleasant trick on us and demonstrate that it's really about something other than these supposedly star-crossed lovers, but then that excitement tapers off and the movie walks back into being more of what we expected it to be. I was very excited though to see that it wasn't trying to indulge me superficially during the last half hour or so. The lone tearful scene was well earned, even if not built up to its fullest.
 
This film didn't so much disappoint me as it did just fail to fully satisfy me. It at least wanted to be something with meaning and purpose, and that I must be thankful for because there are so many stories put into production that lack that quality.

Dear John

\\\"Dear John\\\" is yet another film based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks (most famous for \\\"The Notebook\\\") that takes two main characters and puts them in situations that are incredibly romantic. It actually works, but it\\\'s nothing altogether new.

It starts in spring 2001 and stars Channing Tatum as John Tyree, a soldier in the special forces who is on leave for two weeks and spending it at home, near the ocean. Tyree likes to go surfing, and one day on the beach he meets Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) who drops her purse in the water. John bravely jumps in to get it. This strikes up a small flirtation between the two and soon they have fallen for each other. But they only have two weeks. After that, Savannah goes back to college and John makes his way back to the army.

They promise to write, though. And for months this works out. However right when John\\\'s tour is up, the events of 9/11 happen. John is torn between reenlisting, or returning home to Savannah.

Channing Tatum\\\'s performance as John is nothing new for him. He is mostly unemotional with rare occasions of anger or sadness. I think this part calls for that, but it\\\'s pretty much the same thing for Tatum. He reminds me of a buff Keanu Reeves. Like Reeves, he knows his range and thus picks parts he can handle. This works fine for Keanu Reeves, but for Channing Tatum it could backfire.

The part of Savannah also calls for easy acting, and that job falls to easy actress Amanda Seyfried, whose range feels limited but that\\\'s yet to be determined. This is not a difficult plot with a lot of not-difficult scenes.

Director Lasse Hallstrom uses rich cinematography and thick emotional music to try and get as many tears as he can. I think there will be plenty of tears shed in this movie by some. I think others won\\\'t buy into it.

Did I like the movie? Actually yes. It held my interest, I wasn\\\'t rolling my eyes at the sappy parts and I cared about the characters. My biggest problem with the film is that it\\\'s so simple. I think ultimately it is a decent romance film that will be forgotten by the end of the year.

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Disappointing and not what I expected

I was really looking forward to watching this movie - although, my expectations were not very high - but it turned out to be worse than I expected. I knew Channing Tatum was not the greatest actor - although, he is gorgeous - so I wasn't expecting very good acting. It was decent but I just didn't feel the chemistry between the two actors. The "twist" which I won't mention was where I thought the movie went completely downhill. It was very poorly executed and if you've seen the movie, you'll probably agree. Throughout, the movie was very slow- moving and not very exciting but there were a couple emotional parts! So far, the only people I've asked that did like the movie, seem to be the younger ones (12-15).

This movie is definitely NOT comparable to "The Notebook" like some people have been saying. It was nothing special, so I wouldn't watch it again, but I'd say it's good for a chick flick night. Another one of those movies like that looked SO much better on the commercials.

Vincent Snavely