Dear John (2009 film)
Encyclopedia
Dear John is a 2010 American romantic drama-war film
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...

 starring Channing Tatum
Channing Tatum
Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor and film producer. He began his career as a fashion model and appearing in television commercials for Pepsi and Mountain Dew before turning to film roles...

 and Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

. It was released theatrically in North America on February 5, 2010. The film was directed by Lasse Hallström
Lasse Hallström
Lars Sven "Lasse" Hallström is a Swedish film director. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for My Life as a Dog and later for The Cider House Rules .-Life and career:...

, and it is an adaptation
Film adaptation
Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...

 of Nicholas Sparks's
Nicholas Sparks (author)
Nicholas Charles Sparks is an internationally-bestselling American novelist and screenwriter. He has 16 published novels, with thematic ideas that include cancer, death and love. Six have been adapted to film, including Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe,...

 novel of the same name
Dear John (novel)
Dear John is a novel by American writer Nicholas Sparks, released in 2006.-Exposition:The story starts by explaining John Tyree's childhood in Wilmington, North Carolina. He was raised by a single dad who suffers with Asperger's syndrome and also an extreme obsession with coins. Sometimes, this is...

. It follows the life of a soldier (Channing Tatum
Channing Tatum
Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor and film producer. He began his career as a fashion model and appearing in television commercials for Pepsi and Mountain Dew before turning to film roles...

) after he falls in love with a young woman (Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

). They decide to exchange letters to each other after he is deployed to the war.

Despite receiving negative reviews, the film made a strong box office performance, knocking off Avatar after seven weekends in first place and grossing a total of $112,157,433 worldwide. The film was released on May 25, 2010 on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 and Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...

.

Plot

John Tyree (Channing Tatum
Channing Tatum
Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor and film producer. He began his career as a fashion model and appearing in television commercials for Pepsi and Mountain Dew before turning to film roles...

), a Staff Sergeant in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

 is lying on the ground in combat gear with multiple gunshot wounds to his body. Coins begin to fall over him as, in a voiceover, he recalls a childhood trip to the U.S. Mint
United States Mint
The United States Mint primarily produces circulating coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce. The Mint was created by Congress with the Coinage Act of 1792, and placed within the Department of State...

. He compares himself to a coin in the United States Military, and states that the last thing he thought about before he blacked out was "you".

The story then flashes back to a beach, where John is on leave in Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and is the county seat of New Hanover County, North Carolina, United States. The population is 106,476 according to the 2010 Census, making it the eighth most populous city in the state of North Carolina...

, and he meets Savannah Lynn Curtis (Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

), a college student on spring break. Over the course of two weeks, Savannah and John fall in love. John meets Savannah's family, her neighbor, Tim Wheddon (Henry Thomas
Henry Thomas
Henry Jackson Thomas, Jr. is an American actor and musician. He has appeared in more than 40 films and is best known for his role as Elliott in the 1982 Steven Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.-Early life:...

), and Tim's son Alan (Luke Benward
Luke Benward
Luke Aaron Benward is an American teen actor and singer, best known for his starring role as Billy Forrester in How to Eat Fried Worms and as Charlie Tuttle in the 2008 Disney Channel Original Movie, Minutemen. He also played the role of "Nicky" in Mostly Ghostly: Who Let the Ghosts Out? and...

) who has autism
Autism
Autism is a disorder of neural development characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted and repetitive behavior. These signs all begin before a child is three years old. Autism affects information processing in the brain by altering how nerve cells and their...

.

Savannah meets John's father (Richard Jenkins
Richard Jenkins
Richard Dale Jenkins is an American stage, film, and television actor. After beginning his career in theatre, Jenkins made his film debut in 1974, and appeared in supporting roles in numerous film productions in the 1980s and the 1990s. His breakthrough came in the 2000s for playing the deceased...

), a reclusive man who seems to be obsessed with his coin collection (specifically mules
Mule (coin)
In numismatics, a mule is a coin or medal minted with obverse and reverse designs not normally seen on the same piece. These can be intentional or produced by error. This type of error is highly sought after, and examples can fetch steep prices from collectors.The earliest mules are found among...

), but her genuine interest draws him, to John's surprise. Savannah mentions to John that his father, like Alan, may have autism. This upsets John, who gets into a fight with Savannah's neighbor, Randy (Scott Porter
Scott Porter
Matthew Scott Porter , better known as Scott Porter, is an American actor and occasional singer known for his role as Jason Street in the NBC television drama Friday Night Lights. His character was injured during a football game in the pilot episode and became a paraplegic...

) and, in the process, accidentally punches Tim. John apologizes to Tim, leaves Savannah a note, and then they spend one last day together, parting with, "I'll see you soon, then," rather than goodbye.

John and Savannah continue their relationship through letters, expecting to build a life together when he leaves the army. But the September 11 attacks make him reconsider, and he ultimately chooses to re-enlist. Over the next two years, the romance goes on, through their letters. After a time, John finds himself anxiously waiting the next letter, but when it arrives it is a Dear John letter
Dear John letter
A "Dear John letter" is a letter written to a husband or boyfriend by his wife or girlfriend to inform him their relationship is over, usually because the author has found another lover. Dear John Letters are often written out of an inability or unwillingness to inform the person face to face...

, informing him that she has become engaged to someone else. John is so deeply depressed by the news that he burns all of Savannah's letters.

Despite being wounded and encouraged to return home, John re-enlists. After four more years and many missions, while waiting to receive orders on his unit's next deployment, John is informed that his father had a stroke. When John arrives at the hospital he learns that his father is still alive but in grave condition. Feeling guilty, he asks the doctor if the outcome would have been different if he had been there earlier but the doctor says no. John writes a letter to his father, which he reads to him at the hospital; John's voiceover at the beginning of the film was from this letter, in which he told his father that the first thing to cross his mind after he was shot was coins, and the last thing to cross his mind before he lost consciousness was his dad, ultimately the most important thing in his life. Shortly thereafter, his father dies.

John goes to visit Savannah and is shocked to find that she has married Tim and is living with him and his son, Alan. He learns that she had to abandon her dream of a riding camp for autistic kids because of Tim's fight against lymphoma
Lymphoma
Lymphoma is a cancer in the lymphatic cells of the immune system. Typically, lymphomas present as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. Treatment might involve chemotherapy and in some cases radiotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation, and can be curable depending on the histology, type, and stage...

, and John goes with her to visit him in the hospital. Tim tells John that Savannah still loves him; but John says goodbye to Savannah and leaves. He makes a decision to sell all of his father's coin collection except the mule that John found, to raise money which could help Tim in his treatment. Months later John receives a letter from Savannah telling him "I'll see you soon, then."

Cast

  • Channing Tatum
    Channing Tatum
    Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor and film producer. He began his career as a fashion model and appearing in television commercials for Pepsi and Mountain Dew before turning to film roles...

     as John
  • Amanda Seyfried
    Amanda Seyfried
    Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

     as Savannah Lynn Curtis
  • Scott Porter
    Scott Porter
    Matthew Scott Porter , better known as Scott Porter, is an American actor and occasional singer known for his role as Jason Street in the NBC television drama Friday Night Lights. His character was injured during a football game in the pilot episode and became a paraplegic...

     as Randy Welch
  • Richard Jenkins
    Richard Jenkins
    Richard Dale Jenkins is an American stage, film, and television actor. After beginning his career in theatre, Jenkins made his film debut in 1974, and appeared in supporting roles in numerous film productions in the 1980s and the 1990s. His breakthrough came in the 2000s for playing the deceased...

     as Mr. Tyree
  • Henry Thomas
    Henry Thomas
    Henry Jackson Thomas, Jr. is an American actor and musician. He has appeared in more than 40 films and is best known for his role as Elliott in the 1982 Steven Spielberg film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.-Early life:...

     as Tim Wheddon
  • D.J. Cotrona
    D.J. Cotrona
    Donald Joseph "D.J." Cotrona is an American actor.-Early life:Cotrona was born in New Haven, Connecticut. His father works for a recycling company and his mother is a teacher. He was studying to be a lawyer at Northeastern University in Boston; however, after doing a summer internship at a law...

     as Noodles
  • Cullen Moss
    Cullen Moss
    Cullen Moss is an American actor of television and film and voice actor. He is probably best known for his recurring role as Junk on One Tree Hill....

     as Rooster
  • Gavin McCulley as Starks
  • Bryce Hayes as Harris
  • Braeden Reed as Alan
  • Luke Benward
    Luke Benward
    Luke Aaron Benward is an American teen actor and singer, best known for his starring role as Billy Forrester in How to Eat Fried Worms and as Charlie Tuttle in the 2008 Disney Channel Original Movie, Minutemen. He also played the role of "Nicky" in Mostly Ghostly: Who Let the Ghosts Out? and...

     as Alan (14)
  • Amanda Garsys as Gawky Girl at party

Soundtrack

  1. Joshua Radin
    Joshua Radin
    Joshua Radin is an American recording artist, songwriter and actor. He was born and raised in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and is of Swedish, German, Polish, Russian, and Austrian descent. He studied drawing and painting at Northwestern University, following his college years with stints as an art...

     and Schuyler Fisk
    Schuyler Fisk
    Schuyler Elizabeth Fisk is an American actress and singer-songwriter.-Early life:Fisk was born in Los Angeles, California to actress Sissy Spacek and production designer Jack Fisk....

     – "Paperweight"
  2. The Swell Season
    The Swell Season
    The Swell Season is a folk rock duo formed by Irish musician Glen Hansard and Czech singer and pianist Markéta Irglová. "The Swell Season" name is derived from Hansard's favourite novel by Josef Škvorecký from 1975 bearing the same title...

     – "The Moon
    The Swell Season (album)
    The Swell Season is the self-titled and first album by the duo The Swell Season, , released in 2006."Falling Slowly" went on to be nominated for a grammy and win the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2008....

    "
  3. 311
    311 (band)
    311 is an American rock band from Omaha, Nebraska. The band was formed in 1988 by vocalist/rhythm guitarist Nick Hexum, lead guitarist Jim Watson , bassist Aaron "P-Nut" Wills and drummer Chad Sexton...

     – "Amber
    Amber (song)
    "Amber" is a 2001 single from the band 311 off their album From Chaos. Focusing more on their reggae roots, the song is about Nick Hexum's then fiance Nicole Scherzinger...

    "
  4. The Donkeys – "Excelsior Lady"
  5. Wailing Souls – "Things & Time"
  6. Amanda Seyfried
    Amanda Seyfried
    Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

     and Marshall Altman
    Marshall Altman
    Marshall Noah Altman is a Nashville-based record producer and songwriter who owns the Galt Line studio in Nashville, Tennessee. He was formerly an A&R person for such labels as Capitol Records, Hollywood Records and Columbia Records, as well as the former frontman for the alternative band Farmer...

     – "Little House"
  7. Fink
    Fink (music)
    Fink, AKA Fin Greenall, is an English singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer and DJ from St. Ives, currently based in Brighton. Since 2006, the name Fink has also referred to the recording and touring trio fronted by Greenall himself, completed by Guy Whittaker and Tim Thornton . Fink is signed...

     – "This Is the Thing
    Distance and Time
    Distance and Time is the second album of original studio material from British musician Fink. It was released on 1 October 2007 on the Ninja Tune independent record label....

    "
  8. Rachel Yamagata and Dan Wilson
    Dan Wilson (musician)
    Daniel Dodd "Dan" Wilson is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, Grammy-winning songwriter and producer...

     – "You Take My Troubles Away"
  9. Deborah Lurie
    Deborah Lurie
    Deborah Lurie is an American composer, string arranger, and producer from Palto Alto, CA best known for her scores in the films Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Dear John, and 9. Most recently, Lurie was honored with an ASCAP Film and Television Music Award in June 2011 for a Top Box Office Film...

     – Dear John Theme
  10. Snow Patrol
    Snow Patrol
    Snow Patrol are an alternative rock band from Bangor, County Down, Northern Ireland. Formed at the University of Dundee in 1994 as an indie rock band, the band is now based in Glasgow...

     ft. Martha Wainwright
    Martha Wainwright
    Martha Wainwright is a Canadian-American folk-rock singer-songwriter. She is the daughter of American folk singer and actor Loudon Wainwright III and Canadian folk singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle...

     – "Set the Fire to the Third Bar
    Set the Fire to the Third Bar
    "Set the Fire to the Third Bar" is a song from Snow Patrol's fourth album, Eyes Open, featuring Martha Wainwright on vocals. The song was released as a single on the 13 November 2006.- Background :...

    " (Bonus Track)


Other songs from the movie not on the CD soundtrack
  • Ryan Adams
    Ryan Adams
    David Ryan Adams is an American alt-country/rock singer-songwriter, from Jacksonville, North Carolina. Initially part of the group Whiskeytown, Adams left the band and released his first solo album Heartbreaker in 2000...

     – "Answering Bell"
  • Amanda Seyfried
    Amanda Seyfried
    Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

     – "Little House" (Acoustic)
  • Ozomatli
    Ozomatli
    Ozomatli is a seven to ten piece band playing primarily Latin, hip hop, and rock music, formed in 1995 in Los Angeles. They are known both for their vocal activist viewpoints and their wide array of musical styles - including salsa, jazz, funk, reggae, rap, and others.In a 2007 NPR interview, band...

     – "Saturday Night"
  • Brian Tichy
    Brian Tichy
    Brian Tichy is a drummer, guitar player, vocalist and songwriter. He is currently the drummer with Whitesnake. Previously he was the drummer for Foreigner from 2009 until 2010, when he was replaced by Jason Sutter. Tichy began playing drums at age eight and started playing guitar at age 12...

     – "Dead in Your Tracks"
  • Gaye Tolan Hatfield – "Let Her Gift Be Me"
  • Brad Hatfield – "Ballroom Ballad"

Music

The score to Dear John was composed by Deborah Lurie
Deborah Lurie
Deborah Lurie is an American composer, string arranger, and producer from Palto Alto, CA best known for her scores in the films Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, Dear John, and 9. Most recently, Lurie was honored with an ASCAP Film and Television Music Award in June 2011 for a Top Box Office Film...

, who recorded her score with the Hollywood Studio Symphony
Hollywood Studio Symphony
The Hollywood Studio Symphony is the credited name of the symphony orchestra behind many major soundtracks, including The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Sucker Punch, Jurassic Park 3, Last Samurai, Pirates of the Caribbean, We Are Marshall, Spider-Man 2, Lost and The...

 at the Warner Brothers Eastwood Scoring Stage. A soundtrack album containing songs was released on February 2, 2010 from Relativity Media Group, and a score album was released digitally the same day.

Awards and Nominations

Year Award Category Work Result
2011 People's Choice Awards
People's Choice Awards
The People's Choice Awards is an American awards show recognizing the people and the work of popular culture. The show has been held annually since 1975 and is voted on by the general public. The People's Choice Awards air on CBS and are produced by Procter & Gamble and Survivor magnate Mark Burnett...

Favorite Drama Movie Dear John
2010 MTV Movie Awards
MTV Movie Awards
The MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. Winners are decided online by the general...

Best Male Performance Channing Tatum
Channing Tatum
Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor and film producer. He began his career as a fashion model and appearing in television commercials for Pepsi and Mountain Dew before turning to film roles...

2010 MTV Movie Awards
MTV Movie Awards
The MTV Movie Awards is a film awards show presented annually on MTV . It also contains movie parodies that used official movie footage with hosts and other celebrities and music performances. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at MTV. Winners are decided online by the general...

Best Female Performance Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Seyfried
Amanda Michelle Seyfried is an American actress, singer-songwriter and former child model. She began her career as a child model when she was 11, and at 15 began her career as an actress, starting off with uncredited roles and moving on to recurring roles on As the World Turns and All My...

2011 Teen Choice Awards
Teen Choice Awards
The Teen Choice Awards, are an annual awards show that air on the Fox cable channel, that honor the year's biggest biggest achievements in music, movies, sports, television, fashion and more, voted by teen viewers aged 14 through 17. Winners receive an authentic full size surfboard designed with...

Choice Movie -Drama Dear John


Seyfried and Tatum also received Teen Choice Award and MTV Movie Award nominations for their performances.

Critical response

The film receives generally negative reviews by critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...

 reports that 28% of 95 critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average
Weighted mean
The weighted mean is similar to an arithmetic mean , where instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others...

 of 4.3 out of 10. Among Rotten Tomatoes' "Top Critics", which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 20%, based on a sample of 25 reviews. The site's consensus is that "Built from many of the same ingredients as other Nicholas Sparks tearjerkers, Dear John suffers from its cliched framework, as well as Lasse Hallstrom's curiously detached directing."
Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

, which assigns a weighted average score out of 1–100 reviews from film critics, has a rating score of 43% based on 33 reviews.

Box office

Dear John debuted as the No. 1 movie with $30,468,614 in its opening weekend, knocking off Avatar after seven weekends in first place. The film was the second highest debut for a film opening Super Bowl
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League , the highest level of professional American football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather...

 weekend, just shy of Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert
Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert is a 2008 American concert film from Walt Disney Pictures presented in Disney Digital 3-D. Released in the United States and Canada originally for one week, February 1–7, 2008, with release in other countries later on...

in 2008.
It is reportedly the best debut for a film based on a Nicholas Sparks
Nicholas Sparks (author)
Nicholas Charles Sparks is an internationally-bestselling American novelist and screenwriter. He has 16 published novels, with thematic ideas that include cancer, death and love. Six have been adapted to film, including Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, The Notebook, Nights in Rodanthe,...

novel. By 2011 it had generated $114,977,104 at the box office.

Home media

The film was released on May 25, 2010 on DVD and Blu-ray. It includes an alternate ending in its special features that is more in keeping with the ending of the novel, leaving the viewer to decide which is a more appropriate ending to the film.
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