Year 17, Day 34 - 2/3/25 - Movie #4,934
BEFORE: Cullen Moss carries over from "Safe Haven", it kind of makes sense that somebody would appear in two films based on Nicholas Sparks books, because they all seem to be filmed in the Carolinas, right? Just me? So they probably hire a bunch of local actors, or they draw from a pool of actors who are willing to make the trip there. Look, I've grown to love the Carolinas over the past couple years, now that my parents live down there with my sister. I get it, there's great BBQ and seafood and state fairs, what's not to love? Plus there are like three Waffle Houses in every big city, and lots of Cracker Barrel restaurants, too. Throw in a craft brewery or a German restaurant and I'm good for a week, even though it takes two days to drive down there and two to drive back.
Let's take a peek at tomorrow's schedule for Day 4 of TCM's 31 Days of Oscar line-up, and then get on with the crab boil - I mean, the movie.
Another 7 seen out of 12 means now I'm at 22 seen out of 47, I'm up to 46.8%. I peeked ahead at the schedule, TCM's going to get to Oscar-Worthy Lovers on Valentine's Day, and also Oscar-Worthy Prostitutes the day before. With me doing romance-based films all month long, I'm sure our topics will mesh together at some point.
THE PLOT: A soldier falls for a conservative college student while he's home on leave.
AFTER: Well, I did cut those two Channing Tatum movies in January, so I hope this helps to make up for it, to some small degree. Tatum would be leading the pack with four appearances right now if I hadn't cut them - but hey, I could circle back to "Stop-Loss" for Veteran's Day, so he could still qualify for the year-end countdown, or I could work in that new film "Blink Twice", that everyone's talking about. I also have "Coach Carter" and "Havoc" on my list, if I circle back to him later this year, that's potentially four more.
This is another film based on a Nicholas Sparks book, so by now I know things just aren't going to be easy tonight, like "The Last Song" was about a high-school girl falling in love, but also her dad had a terminal illness and also she had to save some sea turtles hatching on the beach, you know, because North Carolina. Oh, and everyone thinks her father burned down the local church, so she's also got to save his reputation while he's in town, but SURPRISE it was all just a big misunderstanding in the end.
In tonight's film John Tyree is a soldier on leave, visiting his father in this idyllic North Carolina beach town for a few weeks, and he jumps off the pier to rescue a stranger's bag that she dropped in the ocean, and because he's got a faster response time than the dude she was with, he wins her over, despite the fact that he's a rather sullen dude who seems incapable of expressing his emotions. Heck, I'm not even sure he HAS emotions, he just always carries himself like he's at attention or something, so yeah, I believe the character is in the military, the strong but silent type who was raised to bury his feelings deep down. He brings Savannah home to meet his father, who's obsessed with coin collecting and making lasagna, it seems. Savannah realizes that John's Dad is autistic or something, because she has a close friend with an autistic son, but John does NOT appreciate her trying to diagnose his dad. Sure, the guy has a simplistic weekly menu, but who cares if Saturday is always meat loaf night, as long as the meat loaf is GOOD, then shut up and enjoy it. (I was raised in a Massachusetts house where Saturday night was always franks and beans, no exceptions unless it was Christmas or a family party. That didn't mean my father was autistic, he was also raised in a house where that was the ritual.)
Clearly John and Savannah come from two different worlds, they go to a party at her family's house and it's a bunch of white, upper-middle class socialites, most of whom want to thank John for his service. They're probably all just glad that Savannah brought home a white boyfriend, he might not be rich but, well, you know, at least he's the right race. They've only got a short time together before he gets deployed again and she goes to college, so they try to make the most of it, and agree to write letters to each other via the APO, which forwards the mail to U.S. soldiers overseas, no matter where they're deployed, they get their mail, eventually.
The plan is for John to finish his tour of duty and then head back home, so the two lovers will meet up again in person in about a year, with perhaps the occasional visit home to, umm, reconnect and have lasagna on Sunday night with John's Dad. But then 9/11 happens, and all leaves are cancelled, and it's kind of assumed that anyone in the military's going to re-up or re-enlist, and in fact there's a whole wave of people joining the military to protect the country in a time of crisis, so sure, John COULD end his military service as planned, but he feels obligated to extend it.
Things go south for John and Savannah when they just can't seem to get on the same page, their communication skills are lacking, and because they can't really talk about the future together, as a result of that, they may not have one. He can't bring himself to quit the army JUST because he's in love, and she can't quite bring herself to tell him to quit, that he's done his time and so the old plan's no longer good, one year apart turns into three. Sure, there were other options, they could have gotten married, or they could have had, you know, an actual conversation about a plan or a plan to make a plan, but instead they keep writing letters and then one day the letters slow down and, well, let's just say there's a reason the film has the title that it has.
Time passes, and John thinks he might just be a career soldier, but eventually there are no more assignments, and the military decides that John's services are no longer required. So he heads back home to check on his father (yeah, his condition's not really good) and then Savannah. You know, see if that ship has really sailed off for good. No spoilers here, but it's not like spending more and more time apart was going to be the thing that somehow brought them back together. Well, at least John was the bigger man about things, he sells off his father's coin collection to the most honest dealer he can find, and uses the money for a really good cause. Sometimes that's really the best you can do.
Directed by: Lasse Hallstrom (director of "Safe Haven")
Also starring Channing Tatum (last seen in "Fly Me to the Moon"), Amanda Seyfried (last seen in "Jennifer's Body"), Richard Jenkins (last heard in "IF"), Henry Thomas (last seen in "Fire in the Sky"), D.J. Cotrona (last seen in 'Shazam! Fury of the Gods"), Gavin McCulley, Jose Lucena Jr., Keith Robinson (last seen in "Get on Up"), Scott Porter (last seen in "Speed Racer"), Leslea Fisher (last seen in "The Notebook"), William Howard, David Andrews (last seen in "A Walk to Remember"), Mary Rachel Quinn (last seen in "Triple 9"), R. Braeden Reed, Luke Benward (last seen in "Dumplin'"), Tom Stearns (last seen in "American Gangster"), Michael Harding (last seen in "Shock and Awe"), Brett Rice (last seen in "Sex Drive"), David Dwyer (last seen in "Fled"), Anthony Osment, Jim Wenthe, Matt Blue, Maxx Hennard, Jay Phillips (last seen in "Semi-Pro"), Steven Patrick O'Connor, Jessica M. Lucas (last seen in "Nights in Rodanthe"), Teresa Smith, Bryce Hogarth, Amanda Garsys, Shelley Reid, Cenk Otay, Russell A. Turner, Mary Fischer.
RATING: 6 out of 10 houses built for Habitat for Humanity
No comments:
Post a Comment