Dear John Hits Hearts Everywhere

Dear John, first written by best-selling novelist Nicholas Sparks, recently released in theaters. Starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried, this movie provides pretty much everything needed for your basic “chick flick”. As always, the movie is different from the book, but not that far off.  Dear John is about a soldier, named John Tyree, on leave in his hometown, where he meets Savannah Curtis. After rescuing her purse from a fall into the ocean, John and Savannah instantly fall in love. Unfortunately, the love is hard to hold on to, while two weeks was all they had. For the first few months, as John is stationed in Germany, their love never ceased to fade. They kept their relationship together by writing letters to each other constantly. The letters were sort of a reminder to each other that they were waiting to be together. Just as John is ready to finally go home for good, 9/11 comes and changes everything. Soon John finds himself re-enlisting for another two years in the army. Initially supportive of the idea, Savannah soon finds that waiting for John is harder than she thought. With this, she is forced to do the hardest thing that she has ever had to do.

The movie goes into a good amount of detail and has scenes that stray from the book though not too far off, so that it remains true to the book. The only main difference between the book and the movie was the ending.  Not much more can be said without giving anything away. Having read the book and seen the movie, I would highly recommend reading the book and seeing the movie to depict these differences for yourself. Overall, this movie is five out of five stars and the book five out of five as well. Even if you’re not into the “chick flick” romantic love story, you may be surprised at what you see. In general, this movie is very romantic and has puppy love written all over it. But actually read the book or see the movie, and you will see that it goes a lot deeper than that. Yes, it is a man who must choose between the woman he is so deeply in love with and defending his country. But it is more than just a love between a man and a woman, it is also a love between a father and son. So be the judge and go see for yourself. But before you do, try and get your hands on a copy of the book. It’s worth it, trust me.