Her Two Cents: It's the film that knocked Avatar out of the top spot at the US box office, based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks (Nights In Rodanthe) starring two of Hollywood's rising romantic leads. It should be a slam-dunk success, but somehow in spite of such promise, it still manages to fall flat.
Home on leave for two weeks, conveniently named army man John (Channing Tatum) meets good-girl Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) and love ensues at Hollywood speed. Parting ways for the 12-month remainder of John's contract, long letters keep the pair together across the distance until everything is changed by the fall of the Twin Towers. John re-enlists, and the letters continue, but they become ever fewer until one final 'Dear John' letter officially bursts their bubble.
Punched from Sparks' form card of strained family dynamics and doomed holiday romance between the well-off nice girl and the working class boy with history (see also The Notebook, A Walk To Remember and The Last Song, out soon), pasts are hinted at but never explored while the future is tragically predictable, even when it wants to be a surprise. Wide-eyed Seyfried and stone-faced Tatum look the part but have zero chemistry and every awkward scene between the supposed lovers seems painfully forced.
There is an earnest and moving story buried somewhere under the banal prettiness, particularly the relationships around John's father and Savannah's friend Tim, but so many liberties have been taken with Jamie Linden's adaptation, the dig is barely worth it and once again the integrity of a foundation story has been tainted in favour of Hollywood romance.
Pretty and tragic, but also quite dull, the hopeless romantics may find something salvageable, but they might want to wait for the DVD.
Kat McCarthy

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