Movie Review: Dear John

For those that know me, or are getting to, you know I watch just about any movie. My criteria for film watching consisting of one thing: whether or not I can stay awake through it. Admittedly sometimes this is not entirely the movie’s fault. I don’t care about actors, directors, producers, and sometimes not even storyline, these things will not bring me to, or shy me away from a movie.

This last weekend, among others, I watched “Dear John”. While it is classified as a romantic drama, I watched it as a military movie. The theme is real: soldier falls in love, goes away for duty, has nothing to devote himself to besides the woman and his job, and is betrayed by the woman. Unfortunately an all too common occurrence in today’s military.

As for accuracy, unlike most military movies this company did a pretty good job, whoever they were. Only one uniform inconsistency: he’s wearing his rank on upside down for an entire scene, but at least it is for the entire scene, if it was only partial then I would be even more disappointed because it would mean someone caught it and they decided not to reshoot anyway, or worse, someone didn’t notice on a second shooting. The second is just a little thing that even avid military aficionados might notice, being his uniform was entirely too clean for being part of ongoing operations in Afghanistan.

It has a real story, is accurate and relates to the world today, so I highly recommend it. It’s about more than just boy meets girl, has layered emotion, and in the end everything turns out in a realistic fashion instead of a Hollywood fantasy. I hope to see more emotionally realistic movies like this one coming out as years go on, and I say kudos to whoever did release this one.

So, in short, if you’re a fan of the book, or the previous release by the same author “The Notebook”, see “Dear John” because I think it will make you feel. After, all isn’t that what art is really about to convey emotion? This movie will do just that.