Review by Kenneth Barclay
Initial Thoughts
Last week I polled readers of my Facebook
page (Kenneth’s Reviews) on which movie they would like me to review next. The winner
of the poll was a chick flick called Dear John, a movie about a
solider on leave who falls in love with a local college student. Being a
teenage male, I disliked the idea of even watching the movie, but after
viewing it…while I still don’t personally like it, I now see why so many women fall in love
with Dear John.
Romance: Writing/bond/etc. -- 18 out of 25
The writers cleverly layered many issues and problems
in John and Savannah's relationship, creating tremendous romantic suspense,
something that apparently makes women flip. But the actual romance isn’t very
realistic, as I don't believe any two people could fall in love, argue, and make
up from the argument, all within two weeks.
The overall
romantic story definitely improves as the movie progresses, adding break-ups
and even a few twists (no spoilers), but the story is actually very uninteresting
in the first 20 minutes.
The aspect which kills the romance for me comes down to the main lovers'
ages. That two very young adults are thinking about each other
that much doesn’t make any sense to me. It seems as if they have nothing else to do,
especially Savannah, a college girl who lives in what seems to be a
pretty lively little town, complete with parties and fun-loving teens her age.
And yet for some reason, she explains that she thinks about John non-stop
everyday. The same thing goes for John; even though he doesn’t have very many close
friends in the town, he is still in the army and you would think that he would
have made some friends in the military or have other problems or issues on his
mind. Later in the film his perspective changes; however in the
beginning this problem still stands.
Storyline – 20 out of 20
The storyline is kind of interesting and new in some ways. The majority of the storyline occurs while the two are apart from one other, as
opposed to many other chick flicks which keep the two lovers together throughout.
Also in
many chick flicks, the role of the “antagonist” is usually played by a
rich lover who vies for the affection of the main female. In Dear John,
the role of antagonist is played by life and the hardships that come with
being away from home as a solider. Many women can relate to this aspect of the
movie if their husbands or boyfriends have a dangerous job, work a lot, or don’t talk to them as frequently as they should. This clever plot
device attracts many women because they can relate to Savannah, and even
though many of the scenes in which they are apart focus on John, the female
audience is thinking about what Savannah is going through and how worried
she must be. To a female viewer, this makes the story much more real, especially
if they are going through a similar situation.
Characters --12 out of 20
Many of the characters are in quite a predicament, where
their personalities are realistic and actually kind of interesting due to their
past and present circumstances, especially the main characters. However, the
only characters I actually felt any emotion for were John's father and Tim (a neighbour of Savannah's).
Why? First, the acting quality for some characters (especially John, played by Channing Tatum) was simply
below par; secondly, Amanda Seyfriend portrayed Savannah more like a silly
immature teenager, even though she was trying to be serious near the beginning of
the movie. Someone who comes across as immature at the beginning will simply not be taken as
seriously later on. The audience will not care as much about heir problems. If it weren’t for
the fantastic story, this character would have “died.”
Acting quality -- 10 out of 15
I have already covered many of the acting quality notes in
the last section. So just to recap, Channing Tatum (John) was by far the worst
actor in the movie. I am aware of his role as a solider, but the last time I
checked, soliders still had souls. Throughout most of the movie John speaks in monotone and shows very few human emotions. Even when he's angry and punching
people, it seems fake. Amanada Seyfriend played Savannah way too childish, and immature, even when it was supposed to be serious. Richard Jenkins, who played John's dad, did a very nice job portraying someone who was autistic; and the reason he is the way he is is revealed slowly.
Overall writing/directing -- 9 out of 20
One aspect that made me mad was all of the freaking time lapses! More than half of the movie is spent seeing boring time lapses with
stupid cliched monotone dialogue played over the top. What's more, they monologue
most of the Dear John letters all at once, leaving no suspense for any of the others.
The writing does get better as the movie moves forward, adding some interesting
plot devices. However, as the writers add more and more plot devices,
the pacing gets worse, making it harder to follow the
story.
The final verdict for Dear John is a
69/100
Mediocre
Pros
Fantastic and interesting story
Clever romantic writing
Cons
Irritating time lapses
Poor pacing late in the film
So-So’s
Mediocre acting quality
Characters are either poorly acted or poorly written
Any man would cringe at this film; however ,almost every
women will almost instantly fall in love with it. Men, even though you
might(will) hate this movie (trust me), I highly suggest seeing this movie with
your sweetie on a date. She will think of you much more highly!
