Critic Reviews

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.

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.

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

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

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.

A touching melodrama illuminated by a solid turn from Tatum.

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

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

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