'Dear John' deals romance a dose of reality

Romance movies like Lasse Hallstrom's "Dear John" will either make you swoon with affection for its war-crossed lovers, or break out in hives as it knocks down testosterone cells to dangerously low levels.

Viewers are cautioned to consider which reaction they will likely experience.

"Dear John" is the fifth movie to be based on a Nicholas Sparks novel. They include "Message in a Bottle," "A Walk to Remember," "The Notebook" and "Nights in Rodanthe."

Unlike many romance stories (such as "The Notebook") that revel in the schmaltzy notion of a "one true love" for everybody, "Dear John" gives the destined-lovers formula a bleak tweak, a dose of hard-nosed reality that threatens to destroy Hollywood's time-honored concept of happily ever after.

It begins with two romantic archetypes, the virgin and the bad boy.

The latter is a loner named John Tyree (Channing Tatum), a Special Forces soldier on a two-week leave in his hometown in South Carolina in 2000. There, he meets a local college student, Savannah Curtis (Amanda Seyfried), after valiantly diving into the ocean to recover her purse.

It's like-a-lot at first sight.

She's cute and bubbly and smart and outgoing. She studies to be a special ed teacher, probably because one of her friends is the older Tim ("E.T." star Henry Thomas), single father of a boy with autism.

John is chiseled and wary and scarred and withdrawn. Savannah notices local guys shy away from him, as if they're afraid.

"They're afraid of who I used to be," John says tersely.

Ooooo! This guy has a history. His scar attests to a rough-and-tumble youth standing up for himself and his dad.

Dad, played by DeKalb native Richard Jenkins, is an eccentric man of few words, but with a colossal coin collection that Savannah expresses interest in, just to find a connection with him.

Savannah suspects that Dad might be living with an undiagnosed developmental disorder, but John doesn't want to discuss it.

This might appear to be just a subplot to give some dimension to John's background. Not quite.

"Dear John" turns out to be as much, if not more, about the love between John and Dad as it is between John and Savannah, especially after 9/11 happens, and John reneges on his promise to come home and marry her.

Instead, he re-enlists and winds up being sent into combat. There, he lives from letter to letter sent from an increasingly unhappy Savannah.

What happens should not be a surprise in a movie titled "Dear John."

Novelist Sparks has the elements of his successful formula down pat here: A romance forged in a time-constrained situation. A flurry of letters passed back and forth. Mental deterioration. Ideal love lost.

It's "The Notebook" with the old living room furniture rearranged for a new look.

Stockholm-born Hallstrom directs "Dear John" with just enough verve to keep the narrative moving through several slack periods.

His efforts are blessed by the sparkling charisma between his two leading actors, who are appealing and human in their roles as a sincere couple forced by harsh reality to reappraise their belief in true love.

(And I'm serious about that hives thing. Enter at your own risk.)

"Dear John"Rating: #9733; #9733; #189;Starring: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Henry Thomas, Richard JenkinsDirected by: Lasse HallstromOther: A Screen Gems release. Rated PG-13 for sexual situations, violence. 105 minutes