“Dear John”…aka “The Notebook 2″
I, along with 90% of the “Miley Cyrus nation”, ventured to the movie theaters this past weekend to see, what is being regarded as the next great American love story of our time, Dear John. The theater full of tweens bouncing from seat to seat, screaming at the sight of Channing Tatum’s bare chest was enough to send me home—that and the near constant blue glow that filled the theater, as patrons texted each other throughout the entire movie. No, this, although annoying, I could have overcome had I walked out of the theater feeling I had in fact witnessed the next great American love story.
But I didn’t. Instead, I saw a re-enactment of a previously filmed great American love story—The Notebook. Another novel adapted to film by the same author, Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook is one of those movies every woman loves (and every man shivers in fear when in the presence of). I’m not blaming Sparks here, plenty of movies have been butchered when making the transition from paper to reel (see also: The Lovely Bones), but someone dropped the ball. These are not mere coincidences and quite frankly I did not pay $9 to see a reenactment of a movie I own with worse acting. (Please note, if you’re planning to go see Dear John please stop reading here as I do not want to ruin it for you).
| Dear John | The Notebook |
| 1. Out of sorts guy meets overly friendly, overly ambitious girl. | 1. Out of sorts poor guy meets overly friendly, overly ambitious rich girl. |
| 2. Fall in love in a ridiculously short amount of time. | 2. Ditto |
| 3. Love is blinded by the fact that you are living at the beach and have no real responsibility | 3. Same, except Noah is working pretty hard over at the lumber yard. |
| 4. Guy has single, slightly awkward father—girl wins him over. | 4. Guy has single, not-so-traditional father who girl wins over. |
| 5. There is a fight, guy has to leave so they write. | 5. There is a fight, girl has to leave, so HE writes. |
| 6. Girl can’t take the distance and eventually moves on. | 6. Girl can’t take the loss of her summer love and eventually moves on. |
| 7. Guy is in army. | 7. Guy joins army. |
| 8. Guy becomes incredibly obsessed with the army to keep his mind off the girl. | 8. Same thing, but with the house. |
| 9. Guy’s dad dies. | 9. Guy’s dad dies. |
| 10. Couple reunited for awkward “you moved on but I never really did” dinner | 10. There are literally LINES from this scene in the Notebook that are used in Dear John!! |
Bad acting, lack of aging over a seven-year span, and horrible ending aside (literally, the entire theater shared a collective “That’s it?!” when the movie credits began to roll) I still couldn’t get over the glaring similarities. Insult me with bad plot lines, let me roll my eyes at your poor casting choices (I’m mean really, whose cousin-owed-a-favor was “Tim” anyway? He is in no way believable as a man capable of stealing our leading lady’s heart), but when you spoon feed me exact scenes and lines I have paid to see before…that is where I draw the line.
