Dear John (Screen Gems)

Hollywood Reporter (Kirk Honeycutt): A lame romance coupled with more handicaps and hardships than any film can survive without the charge of audience manipulation.

Los Angeles times (Betsy Sharkey): Dear Reader, I’m so sorry, gulp, but “Dear John” is like a very bad relationship with a very beautiful someone: You want it to work, you truly do, but the pain, the guilt, the boredom, the CW soundtrack . . .