A hard life lesson I have learned: Don’t put expectations on things. People, books, movies…anything- it is just better that you don’t. Thus, they don’t meet or miss any expectation, and you are surprised when you approve of it. Unfortunately, I got caught-up in expectations for reading Dear John, because of the film adaptation.
Nicholas Sparks, author of Dear John, draws you into the world he creates. John, a army man, and Savannah, a college student, meet while spending their Summer in coastal North Carolina. They get to know each other, and proceed to fall in love. At the end of the Summer, John has to return to his base abroad, and Savannah returns to college. They believe they only have one year to wait to be together (When John’s enlistment expires), until September 11th happens…
The story was well and good beach reading until that point, then it took a turn for the worst. Sparks zipped through what could have cashed out as a very interesting perspective and went straight back to the love theme – using September 11th as a device to manipulate the relationship of John and Savannah. It was not disrespectful at all, and fairly realistic to the situation, but it was fleeting for an event that had such tremendous consequences non-fictionally and fictionally.
As for the movie, Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried are some of my favorite actors (well, eye candy for the former and actor for the latter…), and I enjoyed the movie much more than novel – especially the changes made to the conclusion.
Thumbs: 1/2 out of 2
Cassidy B. Charles 