Dear John

Dear John Film

Din Lasse Hallstrom
lhi 49mins (12A)
Weepie from the director
of The Cider House Rules

Cinemas should hand out Kleenex, like 3D glasses, for
audiences paying ro see Dear John, said Kate Muir in The
Times. Based on the bestselling novel by Nicholas Sparks,
and firmly intended as a "saccharine weepfest for teenage
girls", the film stars Channing Tatum as a soldier who is
dumped by his girlfriend (Amanda Seyfried) while serving in
Afghanistan. "With a story of charity work, autism, cancer,
9/11 and the Afghanistan war, Lasse Hallstrom's melodrama
holds nothing back," said Nicholas Barber in The
Independent on Sunday. Unfortunately, "it's so insipid that
the tears remain unjerked". That's partly Tatum's fault, said
Peter Whittle in The Sunday Times. This is clearly meant to
be his break-out role, but he is "languid to the point of
seeming drugged". If he wants to become a bona fide movie
star - as opposed to just a teenage "dreamboat" - he needs
"to raise his game".