It was okay

Rating: 6/10 (26 April 2017)

Dear John is a movie about an Army soldier named John Tyree, who meets college student, Savannah Curtis, after he rescues her bag from the ocean. Within two weeks, they fall in love with each other. Savannah gets to meet John's father, Mr. Tyree, whom she observes has autism and John meets Savannah's neighbors and friends, Tim and his son who has autism too, Alan. After two weeks, Savannah goes back to college and John returns to the Army for a year. They agree to send letters to each other throughout the year of his tour. Right before John's tour ends, 9/11 happens and extends his tour. A few months into the tour, Savannah sends him a letter saying that she's engaged to someone else. John is extremely hurt and continues extending his tours until he's sent home because his father had a stroke and is in the hospital. His father passes away and John goes to see Savannah to get some closure. John finds out that Tim is the one she married and that he has stage four lymphomas. Savannah explains that she broke up with him to help Tim out and she couldn't bear the pain of not having John around any longer. John says goodbye to her forever and they go their separate ways. The movie ends with them seeing each other again and they hug each other.
Since this is a romance movie, I think the basic message the film is trying to convey is that there will be circumstances that will keep lovers apart, but true love will always find a way. I would say that the film does convey this message in the romance between John and Savannah. In the movie, there were several circumstances that keep them apart. One of those circumstances is the fact that John was still in the army when they met, so they couldn't be physically together for most of the time and 9/11 occurred when John was still in the Army. Another factor that kept them apart was Savannah's marriage to Tim and Tim's cancer. Savannah felt that Tim needed her help, so she married him. Also, since Savannah and Tim were married, John and Savannah couldn't be together. In the end, though, Tim passes away, so Savannah isn't married anymore and they see each other again and hug. Since the movie ends with them hugging, it's assumed that they get back together and get married.
My reaction to how the movie portrayed individuals with disabilities was overall positive. There were a few things that I noticed that may portray people with disabilities in a negative light. Fortunately, most of the time when it happens, Savannah is there to shed more understanding on the situation than John does. The first thing is the lack of person first language. Throughout the movie, the characters comment how John's father is autistic or that Alan is autistic. If the characters were to use person first language, they would have said "Alan has autism" or "Mr. Tyree has autism" because person first language puts the person first and then the condition. The second thing was also the part where John gets offended when Savannah tells him that his father has autism. He says, "You're saying my dad's retarded or something?" There are two reasons why John's reaction bothers me. First, he uses the word "retarded" which has become widely rejected to use in any context because people with disabilities used to be called retarded as an official term, but then people started using it in different contexts to mean stupid. Using the word "retarded" in place of the word "stupid" is offensive because it's insinuating that individuals with mental disabilities are stupid. Therefore, I do not agree with the choice to include the word in the movie. In the movie's defense, though, Savannah immediately responds to John's comment saying, "No, Alan's not retarded, John. He's autistic." I give the movie credit for making the distinction between "retarded" and having autism. The second reason is because John is offended that Savannah is saying that his dad has autism. Denial may be a common reaction to news like this, but his taking offense to it means that having autism is a bad thing. Having autism should not be viewed as bad, it's just another form of the human condition. The good part, though, is that John still loves his dad.
The third part is when Savannah and John try to get Mr. Tyree to meet her parents, breaking his routine. After they start driving, Mr. Tyree can't go through with it and has to be taken back home. John's reaction is mostly annoyance because he blames his dad for ruining his only night in Charleston. John's feelings and reactions to Mr. Tyree's break down shed a negative light on people with disabilities because he seems to be blaming his father for not being able to make it to meet Savannah's parents'. This blaming is problematic because it's blaming him for something that he can't control. Fortunately, Savannah does point out that he tried, showing that he did want to go.
I think that everything else concerning people with disabilities was good because it showed that they are people too. Also, Savanna comments on how people with autism seem to have a horse sense, meaning that they have good intuition about certain things. Her comment about people with autism having horse sense sheds a positive light on people with disabilities.
I'm giving the movie a 6 because it was a good movie with an okay plot. I would say it's your typical, run-of-the mill romance that I might suggest watching once, but it's definitely not a movie that I would watch again. Also, it definitely wasn't as good as The Notebook because it didn't really have any incredible plot twists like The Notebook does, but overall, a decent romance movie.