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At one point towards the end of DEAR JOHN, one of our love birds says: "We've been sitting here talking, but no one's actually saying anything." Until that point, I wasn't sure what to say about the film's utterly vapid script, but thankfully, that line proved to be pretty helpful. The screenplay for DEAR JOHN doesn't have a single original idea in it, and since I haven't read the source material, I must assume that either this is a poor adaptation or the novel was just as uninventive.
The first act of DEAR JOHN gives one very little hope for what is to come afterwards. The development of how the two leads meet and supposedly start falling in love with each other is very much on-the-surface. This is where we're supposed to start rooting for John (Channing Tatum) and Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) to stay together... but... well, it's impossible to root for a pair of lovers when you don't even feel anything. I don't know if this makes me insensitive but I hardly felt anything during DEAR JOHN. I suspect that girlfriends of guys who have gone away for duty will (inevitably) relate to this material more than I will, but there's very little material here to help the average viewer achieve an emotional connection with the plot.
The montage that follows the first act is actually an improvement. It features John and Savannah exchanging letters while he's on duty and she's at college, and we get to hear voiceovers of the letters. This is the kind of thing that often doesn't work in movies, and I'm surprised by how well it works here. Sadly, this is basically the only good segment of the film. The scenes merely gloss over John's experience as a soldier, while Savannah's college life gets but a tiny bit of screen time.
When the next "letter montage" comes, the film makes the poor decision to show text instead of voiceovers, but this doesn't compare to the poor decision that the film makes at one of its most pivotal moments. John hasn't received letters from Savannah in a while, and all of a sudden, he does, and we obviously know something "bad" is coming. We're just not sure what. Then we hear it: "My life without you has no meaning, John." My instant reaction is, of course, "Oh my God, she killed herself! Great twist! I didn't see that coming. I thought this was just gonna be like all those other movies, in which the guy dies in a heated battle while the girl waits for him back in America." Of course, a couple of seconds later, my inference gets disproved when John speaks to one of his fellow soldiers and tells him what the letter actually said, which, to say the least, is way less interesting and way more conventional.
If there's one conclusion I can finally make after watching DEAR JOHN, it's that Channing Tatum can only give a good performance if he's under the direction of Dito Montiel. The only films in which he's been able to shine are A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS and FIGHTING. Every other performance he has given has been cringe-worthy, particularly when he's required to display emotions and cry, and his line delivery in this particular film is often dreadful. Amanda Seyfried holds her own, but she's displayed more talent elsewhere. But the worst sin of all is the fact that the magnificent Richard Jenkins is relegated into a role in which he hardly gets to do anything, and what's worse is that it's the type of role in which a great actor like him could've done wonderful work. Too bad.
DEAR JOHN is sappy and flimsy. Unfortunately, it's more flimsy than sappy, which is a bad route to take, because sappy movies aren't always bad, but flimsy ones obviously can't escape rottenness. I appreciated the early "letter montage" and I guess I liked the somewhat open ending, but neither of those two things can make up for how vacuous the rest of this cinematic experience is.
4/10
