Metacritic reviews

Fulfills its mission, which is to be a crowd-pleasing tearjerker.

The film, while heartfelt and directed by multiple-Oscar nominee Lasse Hallstrom, is dramatically stillborn.

Ultimately, the story feels as if it's killing time before throwing the next hurdle at the couple.

Dear John exists only to coddle the sentiments of undemanding dreamers, and plunge us into a world where the only evil is the interruption of the good.

I truly wish Dear John were a better, less shamelessly manipulative movie, but a couple of the actors got me through it alive. One is Amanda Seyfried.

The film has two curious subplots and supporting performances that feel tacked on rather than organically part of it.

Awash in mawkish sentimentality, Dear John still will move you deeply - if you're a 12-year-old girl.

This terminally sappy romance delivers heartache, sacrifice, a make-out scene in the pouring rain, and not one but two autistic characters.

Hallstrom and his low-heat stars can’t find the pulse of this corpse.

He is meant to be brooding, I think, but Tatum’s vague features read more “meathead” than anguished young lover. He has to carry the film, but he’s the least interesting thing going on here.