I'll admit it, I got a little teary eyed at the end of The Notebook.  So when I heard that Dear John was another film adaptation of a Nicholas Sparks novel, I was prepared for dramatic sadness.  Honestly, while watching Dear John, I could help but wonder if ole Nicholas is a very unhappy man.  Like all the other stories that have come to the screen so far, Dear John is mostly about the emotional ups and downs of characters' lives.  

Dear John centers around the title character, John Tyree, played by Channing Tatum.  John is an Army man.  While on leave, back home in South Carolina in early 2001, he meets a girl, Savannah (played by the very busy Amanda Seyfried).  John and Savannah quickly fall in love among the sand and waves as only 20 year olds can, but then John has to go back to the Army, and Savannah has to go back to college.  They exchange letters every day, but since this is a Nicholas Sparks story, you can guess that not everything goes smoothly.

Overall, Dear John was a solid story going through the good times and the bad times in this man's life.  Channing Tatum portrayed the strong man, John, who keeps his emotions bottled up very well whether it was dealing with the love of his life or his estranged father (the always capable Richard Jenkins).  Amanda Seyfried was reasonably convincing in her role of the woman left alone and uncertain with her man off at war.  I stayed engrossed in the movie throughout the whole hour and a 35 minutes, even at one point when it seemed as though there were a last minute rewrite. 

Bottom Line: Not as intense as The Notebook, but still pretty good.