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Dear John
Metascore
43 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 25 out of 34
  3. Negative: 5 out of 34
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  1. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Stephanie Zacharek
    70
    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.
  2. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: A.O. Scott
    70
    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.
  3. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Connie Ogle
    63
    There's an audience for old-fashioned romance, and Dear John will please most of it.
  4. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Calvin Wilson
    63
    Fulfills its mission, which is to be a crowd-pleasing tearjerker.
  5. Empire
    Reviewed by: Helen O'Hara
    60
    A touching melodrama illuminated by a solid turn from Tatum.
  6. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Melissa Anderson
    60
    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.
  7. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    58
    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.
  8. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Scott Tobias
    58
    Hallström's approach to the material is tasteful and restrained to a fault.
  9. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Kirk Honeycutt
    50
    The film, while heartfelt and directed by multiple-Oscar nominee Lasse Hallstrom, is dramatically stillborn.
  10. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    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.
  11. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Phillips
    50
    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.
  12. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    50
    The film has two curious subplots and supporting performances that feel tacked on rather than organically part of it.
  13. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    50
    You promised only a slim plot, tidy morals and lovers with quaking loins. It was fun while it lasted.
  14. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Claudia Puig
    50
    You're more likely to roll your eyes than swoon over this slow-moving and far-fetched love story.
  15. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Michael O'Sullivan
    50
    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.
  16. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Janice Page
    50
    Unfortunately for Tatum and Seyfried, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams did a far more convincing version of this same basic dance in "The Notebook.''
  17. ReelViews
    Reviewed by: James Berardinelli
    50
    The appeal is there for those who crave formulaic romantic drama, but there's little of interest for a wider audience.
  18. New Orleans Times-Picayune
    Reviewed by: Mike Scott
    50
    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.
  19. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    50
    If you're just hoping for a little easy escapism, bring your tissues and leave your high standards at home.
  20. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    50
    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.
  21. Variety
    Reviewed by: Brian Lowry
    50
    Ultimately, the story feels as if it's killing time before throwing the next hurdle at the couple.
  22. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    50
    Halfway through the movie, I decided a better title for this weepie contraption would be "The Hurt Letter."
  23. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bill Goodykoontz
    40
    Awash in mawkish sentimentality, Dear John still will move you deeply - if you're a 12-year-old girl.
  24. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Aaron Hillis
    40
    "Chocolat" director Lasse Hallström's tastefully old-fashioned melodrama has exactly one objective: yanking gallons of cathartic tears out of your face by any means necessary.
  25. Boxoffice Magazine
    Reviewed by: John P. McCarthy
    40
    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.
  26. Slate
    Reviewed by: Dana Stevens
    40
    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.
  27. Time
    Reviewed by: Mary Pols
    40
    This isn't a love story, it's a misery story that drags on, not to a dramatic conclusion but a tepid moment.
  28. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    40
    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.
  29. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: J.R. Jones
    40
    This terminally sappy romance delivers heartache, sacrifice, a make-out scene in the pouring rain, and not one but two autistic characters.
  30. Orlando Sentinel
    Reviewed by: Roger Moore
    38
    Hallstrom and his low-heat stars can't find the pulse of this corpse.
  31. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    30
    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.
  32. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    25
    As for the ladies who think any kind of chick flick is preferable to football, be careful what you wish for.
  33. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    25
    Dear John is the sort of movie that gives tearjerkers a bad name.
  34. The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
    Reviewed by: Rick Groen
    25
    Sappy and predictable.
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User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
5.7 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 61 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 17
  3. Negative: 4 out of 17
  1. PP.
    0
    What the heck was this all about? What the heck was the ending? Worst movie I've seen in years, although I loved the Notebook, and also Amanda - I guess I would have to primarily fault the writer and director - don't waste your money or time on this. The movie starts off strong and carries for quite a while, but then totally falls apart into a complete waste of film.… Full Review »
  2. BS
    3
    This is the worst love story i have seen in years. I loved the notebook and all of the other work Mr.Sparks is affiliated with but really, How can you have a love movie without love? This ENTIRE movie could have mad a 20 minute short film and been so much better. Horrible. The only redeeming quality the film had was the father son relationship. Otherwise just plain boring, un-foucused, however, It did have a good book. The theater i was at was packed before i went in. The Guys coming out were PISSED. The women were laughing because it was so bad. Yes a few fell in love with it. But i would say 90% did not.… Full Review »
  3. ChadS.
    6
    In the best tradition of wartime romances, the woman on the homefront can't commit to celibacy, so she writes a Dear John letter calling it quits with her soldier boy overseas. It's a plot point, in which the moviegoer's sympathy is stacked in the man's favor. Like with any war film, "Dear John" dramatizes the combat soldier's plight to stay alive. He's fighting for you and me, and her; he's a hero, and deserves to be treated like one. Obviously, his is the greater sacrifice, since no woman ever died from lack of sex. In such love triangle situations, nobody roots for the other guy(the guy who lets other guys fight in his place), no matter how lonely the woman claims to be. She's a slut, pure and simple, because we identify with the combat soldier. When John Tyree(Channing Tatum) gets hit by enemy fire, the moviegoer's hates Savannah(Amanda Seyfried) even more; her betrayal is amplified by the soldier's fleeting relationship with the physical world. To make matters worse, John suspects(and we do, too) that Amanda's new lover is his rival from the beach. "Dear John", however, treats its female character fairly, since John's injury turns out not to be a life-threatening one. There's no cause for Amanda to well-up with guilty tears. And surprise, surprise, John's replacement is Tim(Henry Thomas), a man with terminal cancer, defusing the moviegoer's inclination to hate Amanda somewhat for her disloyalty. In fact, "Dear John" quite suddenly puts John in a bad light, because it's in his best interest if Tim died, and get Amanda back. "Dear John" is subversive in this sense: a reunion between John and Amanda constitutes an unhappy ending, unless the moviegoer is heartless enough to root for a cancer patient to perish. (Exactly what are John's motivations for his seemingly magnanimous act of generosity toward Tim's affliction?)… Full Review »
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