In for the duration

Rating: 7/10 (29 January 2015)

Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried star in a tender romantic story of a soldier on leave in South Carolina and a college student who have one of those once in a lifetime romantic affairs and who want to make it permanent. Tatum in fact is ready to leave the army once his enlistment is up, but the attacks on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon interrupt that. He and the rest of America go into a permanent state of war which sad to say we'll be in for the foreseeable future.
Her main support in this world is Henry Thomas and his autistic son R. Braden Reed who ages into Luke Benward. One day while out with his unit on some unknown battlefield in the war on terror, Tatum gets that dreaded Dear John letter.
Neither party though deeply in love is exactly truthful to the other. Tatum is not your average GI, he's in fact with Special Forces, otherwise known as a Green Beret. Patriotism is not something trotted out on the Fourth of July or other occasions. He may make the army a permanent profession.
As for Seyfried her reasons for breaking off with Tatum border on the noble and self sacrificing. For that you see Dear John for, but I know in real life of a similar situation that Seyfried faces here.
Also in the cast is Richard Jenkins who is Tatum's mildly autistic and eccentric father. His is a touching performance, the bond between him and Tatum runs very deep.
Tatum and Seyfried are as romantic a couple as I've ever seen in the new century. If your taste in film runs to wartime romance this is definitely the film for you.