Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on September 2011

More emotional button-pushing from sapmeister novelist Nicholas Sparks, featuring a leading man in Channing Tatum who’s as wooden as the script. A Special Forces soldier (named, um, John) runs into trouble with his dreamgirl (Amanda Seyfried) when he re-enlists after 9/11, and gets the inevitable title letter. Once-great director Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules in better days), who should select his source material better, does, for what it’s worth, rein in the usual Sparks mawkishness as best he can, but this is strictly for swoony moviegoers with a high tolerance for gauzy romantic dramas.