Movie Review: Dear John

There are two types of people in this world: Those who like Nicholas Sparks and those who would rather navigate a steep mountain road in a Prius with recalled brakes than sit through an Nicholas Sparks movie.

If you're in the second group, well, I can't help you. But if you liked "The Notebook" and other works by the novelist Nicholas Sparks, you'll be pleased with "Dear John."

On a beach in South Carolina, John (Channing Tatum) meets Savannah (Amanda Seyfried). She's an earnest and conservative girl enjoying spring break from college. He's an Army Special Ops soldier on leave. She falls for his tough guy with unhidden depths persona and his bulging biceps. He falls for her inherent selflessness and her soupy blue eyes.

She introduces him to her neighbor, whose son is autistic. He brings her home to meet dad, who is also mildly autistic, although in his day they didn't have a label for it.

Two weeks later they're in love, the kind of love that shapes the rest of your life. You know they're in love because they're kissing in the rain.

John has an obligation to the US Army and ships back to his unit. The couple agrees to wait out the year remaining in his tour, pouring out their souls to each other in letters.

Of course, it's never that simple.

Duty gets in the way of true love, coming in the form of 9/11. Then Nicholas Sparks gets particularly Nicholas Sparksian. Twists happen. Turns happen. Twists happen on the turns. How is love supposed to keep up?

The sweetest and truest part of this film is the relationship between John and his father, who presumably has lived with Aspergers Syndrome his entire life. Savannah empowers John, who grew up resenting his father's oddities and inability to connect, to accept his father and to connect with him under the terms the Aspergers allows. It's a process that many a child with parents who suffered from disabilities will recognize.

Parents will like that Savannah is truly a giving and kind person. Also that John is a former bad boy turned honorable hero. Parents won't like that, although she doesn't tumble into bed with John immediately, Savannah does not wait for marriage or even engagement to take that step.

This movie is the celluloid version of a beach vacation novel, which is exactly what it came from. It's romantic melodrama that envelopes you for a time, but that is forgettable the moment you put the book down or walk out of the theater. Not that there's anything wrong with that, as Seinfeld would say. Some people golf. Some people knit. Some people watch "Dear John."

So enjoy. I'll be out back firing up the Prius.