I took a chance on this one...and was disappointed

Rating: 4/10 (25 May 2010)

Well, after passing over this movie in theaters and figuring it was going to be another run of the mill "chick flick", I finally saw it was out on DVD today and decided to give it a chance. I went into my viewing of the film with an open mind and was really hoping that this movie would be a cut above the other romance films that had come out lately. This review will contain only very light spoilers, nothing to actually spoil any type of surprises in the plot whatsoever.
Unfortunately, it was nothing new or special. The story involves a girl named Savannah, who meets a boy named John, who happens to be a special forces operative for the United States Army and when not on assignment, lives with his father who has autism. Savannah is spending the two weeks of her spring break helping out a family who's home has been wrecking by a hurricane in John's coastal home town. The two quickly fall in love and the film chronicles the journey they share through the ups and downs of their relationship.
The major problem I had with this film is that the pacing is way off the mark. The film moves at breakneck speed to establish John and Savannah's relationship, which ends up cheapening any type of romance that develops between them. It just never seems believable that they fell in love so quickly.
The other problem I have with the film is that many of the subplots, which are more interesting than the central love story, are never developed. John's relationship with his autistic father never seems genuine either because it is thrown together so quickly that the reason for strain between them in taken care of in a flashback lasting about thirty seconds. Another underdeveloped portion of the film is Savannah's relationship with another character's autistic son. It is just thrown in at the beginning of the film and never really explained. Loose ends abound throughout the rest of the film as well and it is really unfortunate that the film didn't take more time to build on these intricate side stories.
The scenes where John is in combat bring a much needed air of reality to the film, but they're too brief to elevate this film over it's weak script and under-developed characters. This is a film that could have used more script polish and could have been much better had it not been simplified for a wider audience. The love story involving war gives it a current tone, yet the script makes it unbelievable. I haven't read the novel so I cannot speak for it's merits, but the film misses the mark if it intended to differentiate itself from many other romantic dramas that have hit theaters lately.