Year: 2010
Rating: **
Here we have, folks, yet another Nicholas Sparks movie "phenomenon" -- the first to surpass Avatar at the box office in weeks. While previews and The Notebook had me at least partially convinced that I might enjoy this flick, the actual experience was definitively disappointing.
John (Channing Tatum) comes home for two weeks' leave from the service and meets Savannah (Amanda Seyfried) in a chance "let me be heroic and save your purse from the oceanic waves" moment at the beach. He charms her with his unexpected awkwardness, and she wins his heart with her carefree, genuine, girl-next-door, my-hair-is-impossibly-blond-and-wavy-ness. They fall hopelessly in love in the shockingly short wooing phase, and experience significant angst at the prospect of his returning overseas. John leaves with them determined to keep in touch - and they do, for a year, via heartfelt, lengthy letters.
As in any good(?) Sparks Story, there are a couple unexpected twists involving a terminal disease and heartbreaking relationship drama. While I admittedly got a little misty during a scene with his mildly-autistic father towards the end, much of this movie felt too phoned in for my taste. Where I believed wholeheartedly the mixed, passionate emotion between the two leads of The Notebook, I only mildly cared about Channing and Amanda. Not to say that they didn't give it a good go, but it left a little something to be desired. I found myself being continuously distracted by the sheer distance between Seyfried's eyes, and how that kind of makes her look like an alien. A blond alien with really long, shiny hair. 
All in all, shmeh! Skip this. Write your own Nicholas Sparks tear jerker -- the formula is pretty set in stone.
