Tanks and hankies

Rating: 6/10 (7 August 2011)

A big old-fashioned weepie, set in the recent past and coloured with its references to 09/11 and the succeeding war in Iraq. The story of star-crossed lovers- strong, silent, but with a violent streak, soldier John & beautiful, intelligent guitar-strumming Savannah, their relationship is put to the test by the intervention of the war and their coincidental interaction with people with autism, namely John's father and Savannah's family friend's young son.
If that sounds like a fairly contrived story-line, then the reason that he ends up receiving her "Dear John" letter while serving abroad will stretch credulity even further as will the way that it still ends up all happy ever after for the two by the very end. One senses too that life in the army today is not quite the buddy-fest that is portrayed here.
The film is beautifully shot in warm colour tones and in the acting stakes, As Savannah Amanda Seyfried gives an appealing and attractive performance. I was less convinced by Channing Tatum as John, although his surly character certainly gives him less to play with. Correspondingly I didn't quite buy into their relationship and actually thought that his receiving the title letter was the end of the film, rather than the springboard to reunion it later turned out to be.
That said, it was nice to watch a latter-day film in the old tradition, without profanity or violence, the love scenes between the couple in particular being sensitively filmed. All in all, a pleasant film my wife and I could both watch together quite happily although there were probably too many coincidences in the story for it to properly hang together.