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February 21, 2010
Marcy Shieh
After watching the cinematic adaptations of A Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember and The Notebook, I was convinced that Nicholas Sparks was a shallow sentimentalist who believed in the old-fashioned, fairy tale concept of love. But after watching Dear John, I am convinced that Sparks is simply, a soft-spoken sadist.
Dear John chronicles the boring love story of John Tyree (Channing Tatum) and Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried). They meet on a sun-kissed beach in the spring of 2001 and fall in love almost instantly. Savannah is a college student on spring break and John is on leave from the U.S. Army Special Forces.
Savannah is a saint, despite her privileged conservative upbringing; she builds houses for hurricane victims, wants to work with autistic children and becomes one of the few to connect with John’s father (Richard Jenkins), a man obsessed with his coin collection. Although Seyfried possesses talent, her performance as Savannah is usually shallow and one-dimensional. Savannah’s only flaw seems to be the fact that she’s just too darn saint-like.
John has a temper, but he is ultimately, a decent man deserving of a pleasant spring romance set to “falling in love” montages that resemble forgettable Hallmark commercials. Tatum’s performance is bland when he should be dashing, charming, magnetic, or just anything, really, that could make him somewhat interesting. Tatum is like a high school jock with zero personality and a heartthrob status that no one can explain except for the girls who labeled him as such.
Unfortunately for John and Savannah, this is not Grease. Spring break ends and the lovers returns to their respective positions in life. They exchange letters and a letter-writing montage ensues because this movie thinks montages are enough to serve an emotional impact. Two full pages of writing are shown, but the voice-overs reading the letters repeat the same old things in several variations.
John is eager to return to Savannah, but Sept. 11 happens. The couple is reunited, then separated because of John’s sense of duty to serve his country. Fair enough. They continue to be the lamest pen pals they can be, until the side-effects of being characters in a Sparks movie adaptation blow up in their pretty faces.
Like any Sparks adaptation, I wait for the tragedy. However, Dear John is not particularly tragic. John and Savannah seem like a couple Sparks created just so he can tear them apart, again and again. The reason that prevents them from living happily ever after is so mind-blowingly contrived that I wonder what may be the motives for Sparks’ ridiculously sadistic antics. I constantly tried to remind myself the movie is gentle and means no harm.
My friend told me that the movie closely follows Sparks’ novel, yet the novel is superior because it explains everything the movie doesn’t have time to show. I am happy for those who have read the novel, but I don’t need to experience this story in two different mediums. As the credits rolled, a middle-aged man whispered in a loud, exasperated breath, “My God…” My sentiments, exactly.
Verdict: C-
