Dear John

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Dear John carefully distills selected elements of human experience and reduces them to a sweet and digestible syrup. It may not be strong medicine, but it delivers an effective, pleasing dose of pure sentiment and vicarious heartache.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

I'm fully prepared to hear people write off Dear John as corny, sappy, a movie for chicks. But I'd counter that Hallström's old-fashioned idealism about art and emotion is the more important quality shining through Dear John.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

There's an audience for old-fashioned romance, and Dear John will please most of it.

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Calvin Wilson

Fulfills its mission, which is to be a crowd-pleasing tearjerker.

Village Voice Staff (Not credited)

The biggest surprise here is Tatum, whose butch reticence has never been put to better use: His saddest farewell isn’t to his lady, but to a man even more uncommunicative than he is.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Ironically, they make the bond between John and Savannah look so natural that the ''dear John'' turn in their relationship makes even less sense than it does in the book.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Hallström's approach to the material is tasteful and restrained to a fault.

Boston Globe Janice Page

Unfortunately for Tatum and Seyfried, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams did a far more convincing version of this same basic dance in “The Notebook.’’

USA Today Claudia Puig

You're more likely to roll your eyes than swoon over this slow-moving and far-fetched love story.

Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey

There's no real depth or texture to the characters of any sort, sentimental or otherwise, and I say that as someone who can be brought to tears by a Hallmark commercial.

San Francisco Chronicle Amy Biancolli

You promised only a slim plot, tidy morals and lovers with quaking loins. It was fun while it lasted.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The film has two curious subplots and supporting performances that feel tacked on rather than organically part of it.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Dear John exists only to coddle the sentiments of undemanding dreamers, and plunge us into a world where the only evil is the interruption of the good.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The film, while heartfelt and directed by multiple-Oscar nominee Lasse Hallstrom, is dramatically stillborn.

Variety Brian Lowry

Ultimately, the story feels as if it's killing time before throwing the next hurdle at the couple.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

If you're just hoping for a little easy escapism, bring your tissues and leave your high standards at home.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

I truly wish Dear John were a better, less shamelessly manipulative movie, but a couple of the actors got me through it alive. One is Amanda Seyfried.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Dear Nicholas Sparks, There's no easy way to say this. But with Dear John, the latest of the five films made so far from your sentimental, best-selling novels, I think our relationship is in trouble.

New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott

The ending of Dear John feels manufactured and patently false. Seyfried tries to sell it, but you can tell that she's having a hard time believing the words coming out of her mouth.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Halfway through the movie, I decided a better title for this weepie contraption would be “The Hurt Letter.”

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The appeal is there for those who crave formulaic romantic drama, but there's little of interest for a wider audience.

Time Mary Pols

This isn't a love story, it's a misery story that drags on, not to a dramatic conclusion but a tepid moment.

Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz

Awash in mawkish sentimentality, Dear John still will move you deeply - if you're a 12-year-old girl.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

This terminally sappy romance delivers heartache, sacrifice, a make-out scene in the pouring rain, and not one but two autistic characters.

Slate Dana Stevens

It's the cinematic equivalent of a plastic-covered couch under a "Bless This House" sampler. And that's not a bad thing, for audiences who have a high threshold for sentiment and a low one for dramatic conflict.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

What happens when a genuinely dear John gets a Dear John? For the answer, just meander--no need for running or walking--to your local multiplex. That's where Dear John, based on the Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name, will be meandering on its downward path from sweetly tender to terminally turgid.

Boxoffice Magazine John P. McCarthy

As flat as the Carolina coastal region in which it’s set, Dear John features two gorgeous young actors playing denuded characters in search of more narrative garb.

Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore

Hallstrom and his low-heat stars can’t find the pulse of this corpse.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

He is meant to be brooding, I think, but Tatum’s vague features read more “meathead” than anguished young lover. He has to carry the film, but he’s the least interesting thing going on here.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

As for the ladies who think any kind of chick flick is preferable to football, be careful what you wish for.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Sappy and predictable.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Dear John is the sort of movie that gives tearjerkers a bad name.