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John Tyree (Channing Tatum) finds the love of his life, Savannah (Amanda Seyfried), in two weeks in “Dear John.” |
Romance movies like Lasse Hallstrom’s “Dear John” will either make you swoon with affection for its war-crossed lovers, or break out in hives as it knocks down testosterone cells to dangerously low levels.
Viewers are cautioned to consider which reaction they will likely experience.
“Dear John” is the fifth movie to be based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. They include “Message in a Bottle,” “A Walk to Remember,” “The Notebook” and “Nights in Rodanthe.”
Unlike many romance stories (such as “The Notebook”) that revel in the schmaltzy notion of a “one true love” for everybody, “Dear John” gives the destined-lovers formula a bleak tweak, a dose of hard-nosed reality that threatens to destroy Hollywood’s time-honored concept of happily ever after.
It begins with two romantic archetypes, the virgin and the bad boy.
The latter is a loner named John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a Special Forces soldier on a two-week leave in his hometown in South Carolina in 2000. There, he meets a local college student, Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), after valiantly diving into the ocean to recover her purse.
It’s like-a-lot at first sight. (Read more…)