Or did you celebrate Valentine's Day like much of America apparently did, and buy your sweetie … some movie tickets?

A trio of new films dominated the box office this weekend, bumping poor ol' Avatar to fourth place. Appropriately enough, the star-studded film Valentine's Dayruled the romantic roost, pocketing $52.4 million, according to Box Office Mojo—enough to buy about 1.2 million hefty boxes of chocolates from Godiva Chocolatier, in case you're curious. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief came in second with $31.2 million, nudging out The Wolfman's $30.6 million.

Adam Holz, who reviewed Valentine's Day for Plugged In, wasn't too impressed with the flick, calling it a feel-good movie that obscured some pretty serious moral problems. Other reviewers were equally unimpressed. But that didn't stop a tide of folks from flooding the theaters to see the thing. The film did so well, in fact, that its makers are probably wondering right now whether there might be a market for a celebrity-laden film called St. Patrick's Day.

But while romance might've conquered the weekend, all three newcomers had pretty good takes. Which makes me wonder … did you plunk down your cash to go to Valentine's Day? Did you see something else? Or did you just stay home, like I did, and watch the Olympics?

A Nicholas Sparks novel-turned-movie first shocked me with its tear-duct-draining ability in Los Angeles when I saw The Notebook. At the end of the show, even grown men in the enormous, loudly sniffling audience were grabbing for tissues. Dear John is more of the same: a far-fetched, histrionic flick from the Sultan of Sap. (Sparks probably owns stock in paper products.)

This picture didn't leave me teary-eyed, though women were crying all around me. I was just really irritated with Savannah (played by Amanda Seyfried), who jilted her soldier fiancée, John (Channing Tatum), while he was deployed.

Nonetheless, after recovering from my blinding ire and others' sobbing, I learned something from this film: Visceral reactions are often worth reexamining.

When reviewing the movie, I had to look beyond my own emotional blinders. I had to consciously step back and reevaluate the positive content in the film in order to be fair to Sparks and his cast. To her credit, Savannah does stick with her man in the end—and, OK, it's not John, but at least she's made a commitment. And John's self-sacrifice and forgiveness, which could be called redemptive and somewhat Christ-like, are worth some reflection.

Now, these things aren't enough for me to say, "Run out and see this picture!" Frankly, you're probably better off not, especially if you have a head cold. But they were enough to make me reconsider my own predispositions. I remembered anew to step back and give the benefit of the doubt.