The Pain and Anguish of a Long Distance Relationship

Rating: 7/10 (8 February 2010)

The only thing romantic about this movie is the pain and anguish of a long distance romance and the dire consequences that occur when you are separated from your lover. If you are expecting this cinematic adaptation of another Nicholas Sparks novel to follow the surefire formula of Sparks' previous films, such as "Message in a Bottle," "Nights at Rodanthe," and "A Walk to Remember," think again. Nobody dies from a tragic accident trying to save somebody else, though the romance here does transform these characters, but in seemingly the worst way. If anything, it makes them even more miserable than they were unless an implied eleventh hour happy ending that seems to come as an afterthought so the movie closes on an upbeat note. This is one of those romances where the least competitive character wins the girl, strictly because he is around when she needs him. Indeed, the man and the woman back home qualify as villains, while the patriotic hero is ironically the martyr.
A soft-spoken U.S. Special Forces Army Sergeant, John Tyree (Channing Tatum of "G.I. Joe"), is on leave from the military when he has a memorable two-week fling with an impressionable college girl, Savannah Curtis (radiant Amanda Seyfried of "Mamma Mia"), who is spending her spring break in South Carolina. John has spent the morning surfing. He is lounging on a pier when she spots her for the first time and she drops her purse—("her whole life is in that bag'')-into the ocean. Before the guy with her, Randy (Scott Porter of "Descent"), can recover the purse, John plunges into the water and retrieves it. Randy asks for the purse, but John has no intention of giving it to him. Randy and John eventually settle their differences. Anyway, John is interested in Savannah. They go out on a romantic, night-time date, and he wants to repeat the experience. Savannah doesn't drink, smoke, but she tells John that her head is filled with profanity. Inevitably, John and Savannah topple madly in love with each other and launch an endless exchange letters of love letters that are sleep-inducing by any standard. Tyree is off in the world serving the military in some godforsaken corner of the globe while she is away at college perusing his letters in class. Just as they are getting hot and heavy between them, suicidal terrorists crash planes into the World Trade Center. John reenlists along with his buddies in a wave of patriotism without discussing the option with Savannah.
Meanwhile, another guy, shaggy but likable family friend Tim Wheddon (Henry Thomas of "E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial") who has a motherless, autistic son named Alan (Luke Benward) becomes the object of Savannah's sentiment. She is the kind of girl who helps build houses for the less fortunate and wants to start a summer horse ranch for autistic children. She is an idealist without a clue. She delays what seems forever –actually two months--before she finally contacts Tyree with the eponymous letter. Basically, Savannah dumps Tyree for a scruffy guy afflicted with cancer! This reminded me of the standard scene in a movie where the heroine rushes to the rescue of the guy who gets beaten up rather than the one who does the beating up. Later, she confesses to John that she knew the sound of his voice would have shattered her resolve to marry Tim, so she doesn't make that fateful call.
Predictably, John agonizes over Savannah's lack of communication. During a routine mission, our hero takes a couple of terrorist bullets in the back and winds up in a military hospital in Germany. The circumstances surrounding John's wounds are rather ironic. He is reassuring another soldier who has been by the same sniper but who survived the shooting because his body armor saved them when the bullets struck him. While all this is transpiring, Tyree is trying to come to terms with his own coin-collecting father, Mr. Tyree (Richard Jenkins of "Step Brothers"), who suffers from Asperger's Syndrome. Their relationship is poignant and a lot is left unsaid with only the performances of the two actors to flesh it out. It seems that his father was on his last legs after John got out of the hospital. The physician who attended Mr. Tyree explains that he—John Tyree—couldn't have intervened in his father's death. Richard Jenkins delivers another devastating performance as a peripheral character whose hobby is coin-collecting, something that initially enabled him to bond with his son. The lead female character lacks a shred of respect and her betrayal of Tyree constitutes an incredibly low blow. Tyree, his father, and Tyree's commander, Captain Stone (Keith Robinson), are the only sympathetic characters in this long distance epistolary romance.
"Dear John" leaves you feeling pretty low until the final scene. Tyree is a civilian who is locking his bicycle to a downtown parking meter when he spots Savannah in a restaurant. She rushes outside to hug him. "What's Eating Gilbert Grape" director Lasse Hallström and "We Are Marshall" scenarist Jamie Linden give us the impression that Tyree and Savannah will live happily ever after since Tyree is finished with the military and Savannah has laid Tim to rest. If you've ever had a girl dump you, this is the kind of movie that will hit you where you live. One of the best things about this film is that it knocked James Cameron's "Avatar" out of the top spot at the box office when it came out.