Kurt Loder Reviews 'Dear John'
The most interesting thing about this picture — the thing that might make it work for a viewer in a certain woozy frame of mind — is the deadpan sincerity that director Lasse Hallström brings to the material. He doesn't see the story as a shop-worn anachronism (it's set in 2001, but it feels like 1944), and he doesn't milk it for heart-wringing sentiment (the plot does all the milking on its own). He plays it straight, and invites us to sniffle along if we want. There's something kind of admirable about this, I guess, in a going-down-with-the-ship sort of way.
