tracy-lee.com

A few months ago while I was walking out of a movie, I walked past a poster with a boy and a girl sitting sadly on a beach. Dear John... coming soon. I had no idea what this movie was, nor what it was about- but I knew I'd be seeing it. Turns out it was a story by Nicholas Sparks that had been turned into a movie. Sound familiar? Message in a Bottle, A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, The Notebook... all works of Mr Sparks. All movies I've seen, all movies that have made me cry. Don't like North or South Carolina? Don't bother reading or seeing anything related to Sparks, all his stories take place there, all.

I picked up the book from Chapters about a month ago and figured I'd get through it pretty fast, well once I forced myself to get past the first chapter I polished it off in two days. What is it with first chapters being so boring? I love reading books that are being turned into movies- especially if I actually really enjoyed the book, plus then I can picture characters more easily in my head. Hello, Channing Tatum. Sorry Brenny, I still haven't googled. Once I finished the book and thought back, I really wasn't that impressed with the story. It hadn't finished how I wanted, that's the main thing.

For once, I thought that a movie adapted from a book was better than the actual book. Channing Tatum did an amazing job playing John Tyree, Amanda Seyfried was perfect as Savannah Curtis- together they were almost, almost as good as Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams in the Notebook (I did say almost- don't get your panties in a knot). Going in, knowing it was a typical Nicholas Sparks movie, I knew tissues would be a must- I'll skip past the sandpaper-esq story, but they did their job in the end. Waterproof mascara is another thing you might want, if you have some laying around. I went a good hour or so before breaking down into absolute sobs, I'm talking trying to hold everything in but failing horribly. Giant tears streaming down my face at a rapid rate. If you see the movie, you'll know exactly what part I'm talking about. But I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen the movie yet.

Photos taken from IMDB.com

In the car on the way home Mama Bear and I were discussing the movie and that's when she told me that she was holding it all together until she heard me cry. Then I apologized and started to cry about the movie again, still in the car, about 10 minutes from the theatre. I'm emotional when it comes to sappy love stories, what can I say!? I know that if I were to see the movie again I wouldn't cry, happened with The Notebook and A Walk to Remember- second time around, not a single tear as hard as I might try to push them out. Despite what the people who haven't seen the movie say, it's great and don't take the word of some old guy who may have reviewed it and gave it a thumbs down.

Update: Thrilled to see that Dear John took down Avatar at the box office this weekend and took in over 30 million dollars. Someone was smart- putting out a chick flick on the same weekend as the Super Bowl.