Dear John is the classic tale of love and war and all that goes with it. The romantic drama commences in California on what is possibly spring break and John, Channing Tatum, meets Savannah, Amanda Seyfried.

In actual simplicity this is another adaptation of boy meets girl, boy goes to war, girl finds waiting for the object of her affection hard, then leaving the rest of us wondering whether or not their love can sustain the separation that war can cause.

The story opens over the course of the couple’s spring break and we get an insight into John’s background and unfortunate family circumstance. We see the developments of the story from John’s point of view, as he must go back to military contract for a year and cannot tell Savannah where he’s going or where he’ll be at any point.
 

The film’s slightly cheesy name is taken from the lovely idea of the couple sending letters to each other, even if it they might be hard to receive or send for the mannish yet forlorn, far away John: yeah, the film’s a bit gay like that.

This romantic drama is a nice story and certainly one for the girls; if, as a female, you are in anyway emotionally disconnected (or dead inside!) you will probably not be taken in by this film.

That’s not to say the story itself is a bad one, it is very well written and the cast is quite strong. The nature of this film is not to get too emotional on the audience, instead it tells the story as an overall struggle of different individuals and their opposing personal circumstances.

For that last reason if as a male you think you are too alpha, or not fully comfortable with your own sexuality and would normally use the genre of this film as an excuse not to go see it, it’s not actually that* badly inclined.

(*Emotional bullshit)

The film probably won’t win any awards and is likely to be even make a blip in the radar of films to see and be seen going to this year but it’s certainly not bad. Look out for a performance by Richard Jenkins, of Six Feet Under fame, he does a great job as John’s awkward, coin collection hobby-ing father.

There’s a bit of the sex thrown in for good measure, nothing too frisky but you’ll certainly get the message. Seyfried and Tatum are very nice to look at, as are some of the nice images of beaches, in comparison to treacherous war scenes used in this film; that is to say, the cinematography is certainly worth your attention.

Please note that if I have to go down the “cinematography road” you probably need to ask yourself is it something you actually want to go and see!

Emer Molloy