Dear John

The last film released that was directed by Lasse Hallström was the emotionally draining Hachi. Therefore, you’d think his next film, Dear John, which deals with found love, lost love, family ties etc would be a shoo-in for watery eyes. How wrong you’d be though. This film is an adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, which, if you’re aware of his output, you’ll already have a fair impression of what the basics of the film will be about. In Dear John we have Channing Tatum starring as John Tyree, a soldier who, whilst on leave, falls for Savannah Curtis (played by Amanda Seyfried). Can the relationship last though? The biggest problem is that we, frankly, don’t care. Tatum is again cast as the caring beefcake, but has little charisma, whilst Seyfried is somewhat mis-cast. The fact there is zero chemistry between them means you’ll be hard pressed to donate much emotion to either. The one place the film does succeed is showing Tyree’s relationship with his mentally ill father (played by the ever excellent Richard Jenkins). In fact a whole film based on their relationship would have been more of a success as opposed to having it mixed in with some mawkishness of the very worst kind.

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict
I think even the target audience might struggle with this one. Rating: 4/10.