Dear John

Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum play Savannah and John, 2 people who meet and spend 2 weeks together and fall in love over spring break.  Their surprising union is broken up as Savannah returns to college, and John returns to the army and his rotation overseas.  They share letters over the course of a year as John's military commitment is due to come to a close, but then a tragic event happens, and everything changes for this young couple.

Director Lasse Hallstrom spends considerable restraint mining the inherent sadness of the situation between John and Savannah, and guessing by the title, one plot turn isn't hard to guess, but the film just grinds away at the sweet sorrow to its detriment by the time we get to the final act, and the viewer feels manipulated by the lack of true communication that should have happened, and the screenplay employs every trick of the book to reduce John into a overly sad and broken man to ramp up the sniffles-inducing scenes as the characters get put through the emotional wringer. 

Seyfried is a good young actress, but the material doesn't really push her, while Tatum isn't an acting talent, but has movie star looks and gives it a go on the emotional scenes with middling results.

I give it 2.5 stars, or a grade of C+.