3/10
You could argue that if a film achieves what it sets out to do, then you shouldn't criticise it. This film certainly achieves what it sets out to do, and I intend to slag it off big time.
Nicholas Sparks specialises in writing books that sell in vast numbers, are turned into appalling films, and make John Grisham look like Charles Dickens. This is his latest offence against cinema/literature. The key element in all his stories is the love that cannot be. It's Mills And Boon by any other name, except M & B don't get filmed. John is a Special Forces soldier (built like a male model); Savannah is a blonde with bug eyes and a handbag that falls in the sea, allowing John to rescue it and start the romance that will tear their hearts asunder (I'm trying to capture the Sparks style).
The major problem is 9/11 (still a turning point in sentimental American movies) which requires John to continue in his role as towelhead exterminator. Therefore the tragic romance can only be continued by mail, thus the title of the film. It's as cheesy as a 2nd year student's sock drawer, and about as appealing. No cliche is left unmolested, and I shall list a few below, to illustrate how to put together the ultimate in soppy, slushy, mushy, poopy movies.
1. Endless syrupy music - strings, pianos, guitars, mainly used to move the film from scene to another, or to avoid going into significant detail.
2. A completely fake quarrel, allowing the lovers to make up afterwards.
3. A series of moments. There's never any continuity to a scene, they simply melt into each other like a series of marshmallow blobs on a stick when they get too close to the fire.
4. Melodrama is the preferred style. That's when dramatic events are used to propel the plot, rather than character.
5. Other people are used to make a point: Aspergery dad=lack of communication; autistic kid=opportunity to be kind and sensitive; you get the idea
And so on and so on, and boy, does the film go on. I don't think I can find a single goo thing to say about it, except of course that it will satisfy large numbers of people (mainly female) who like their sentiment served wholesale.
