Seyfried and Tatum bring the love to 'Dear John'

Come on, with a title like "Dear John," you know there has to be some heartache, right?

Amanda Seyfried just wants people to know that her new movie might have a wartime theme, but make no mistake: This is about romance, not the battlefield.

"I want people to know that this is a movie about two people falling in love for the first time," says Seyfried, best known for starring opposite Meryl Streep in the musical "Mamma Mia."

The film, based on the novel by "The Notebook's" Nicholas Sparks, tells the story of a couple kept apart because one is serving in a military overstretched after 9/11. Seyfried knows there are lots of romantic partners these days who can identify with that scenario.

"I appreciate how hard it is for these soldiers to leave their families," she says in a phone interview from San Francisco, where she's promoting the film with co-star Channing Tatum. "And they still have to be in the right mindframe when they're doing their jobs."

Seyfried's character, an independent-minded South Carolina woman named Savannah, has to cope with having a boyfriend who in the days after 9/11 feels pressured to extend his service in the military.

Now, about that heartache.

It's never easy turning a book into a movie, especially one with a bittersweet story arc. In the case of "Dear John," the ending of the completed film was reshot in January, just weeks before its Jan. 23 premiere at the Fort Bragg military base, the New York Post reported.

A spokesman told the paper, "The filmmakers, with Nicholas' blessing, added a scene that leaves the audience with more possibility of what might happen."

Tatum acknowledges the film's less bittersweet ending.

"When you make a film, things can get lost in the middle," he says. "The good thing is that Nicholas trusts us with his story."

—

(c) 2010, The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.).

Visit The Fresno Bee online at http://www.fresnobee.com/

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.