Movie Review

The Notebook (PG-13)

Kit Bowen

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Hollywood.com Says
If not for some inspired moments of breathtaking beauty and heartfelt performances, The Notebook would just be one of those tired love stories that you quickly forget.

Story
Based on the bestseller by Nicolas Sparks, the film begins with Duke (James Garner) and Allie (Gena Rowlands), an inseparable couple living in a nursing home. While Duke remembers their life together, Allie, who suffers from progressive dementia, does not. Their only bond is a faded notebook from which Duke reads to Allie every day, telling her the same story over and over. It's a sweeping tale of two South Carolina teens, country boy Noah (Ryan Gosling) and city gal Allie (Rachel McAdams), who spend one glorious summer in the early 1940s falling madly in love. Unfortunately, the couple is soon separated, first by her disapproving parents and then by World War II, but after seven years apart, after taking different paths, they are passionately reunited. There's a catch, though; Allie is now faced to choose between the man she once loved and the successful businessman (James Marsden) she is engaged to. It's really no surprise who the young Allie chooses in the end--but for Duke, the only thing that keeps him going is the fact that every day, somehow through the power of this story, the mentally impaired Allie miraculously remembers their love, if only for a very brief moment, before slipping back into oblivion. Tears being jerked from your eyes yet?

Acting
The talented cast certainly elevates The Notebook's romantic drudgery. McAdams takes a departure from all the Mean Girls she's played lately (including The Hot Chick) and easily wins you over as the spirited young Allie, while the usually intense Gosling also tackles something lighter, so to speak, than his previous darker roles, such as his Jewish-turned-American Nazi leader in The Believer. While infusing a certain sense of brooding and melancholy into Noah, especially in the years he spends pining for Allie, Gosling manages to exude Noah's genuine warmth and sensitivity as well. And between the two of them, real sparks fly, as the actors paint a fresh and inviting picture of young love that stands the test of time. Marsden is completely wasted, however, as Allie's fiancé Lon, a upstanding Southern gentleman Allie's parents expect her to marry, who offers little as to why Allie should stay with him. As the older contingency, veterans Garner and Rowlands, who take the sappiest material and turn it into something meaningful, inspire some truly heart-ripping moments as the aging couple, holding onto their love as tight as they can. In the supporting cast, Joan Allen has some shining moments as Allie's uptight mother with a secret of her own.

Direction
In bringing the popular novel about enduring love to life, director Nick Cassavetes (Unhook the Stars) may have used his own experiences, having seen his parents--the late John Cassavetes and his lady love and muse Gena Rowlands--play out their own real-life love affair. Cassavettes gets to the heart of the material right away and permeates the screen with the beautiful surroundings of South Carolina, where The Notebook was filmed. We glide through lush, moss-filled swamps and sleepy Southern towns, marvel at languid shots of the South Carolina coastline. It's very clear Cassavetes has a way with actors, much like his father did, gently coaxing realistic performances from his young, somewhat untested leads while allowing old guards like Garner and Rowlands to simply work their magic (imagine telling your Oscar-nominated mother how to act. Right). The problem is the story itself, which not only offers nothing new to the romance genre but also isn't very compelling. There are no great tragedies (save, perhaps, for the whole dementia thing), no real villainous presence to keep the lovers apart, no peril at all. It's boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-wins-girl-back--ho-hum. Where's the sudsy soap opera when you need it?

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Everyone's a Critic

"I have the same allergic reaction to this open faucet of tear-jerking swill as I do to the 1996 Nicholas Sparks novel that inspired it."
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

"The Notebook feels like a movie we've seen several times before: Beautiful rich girl (Rachel McAdams) falls for intense but poor boy (Ryan Gosling); obstacles must be overcome."
Claudia Puig, USA Today

"From the first soft piano that accompanies white geese flying toward a humongous orange sunset, The Notebook racks up the sugary clichés till you're screaming for mercy."
Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly

"In Hollywood, old age is even more difficult to depict with real honesty than young love…and as the story leaps back and forth, the movie veers between unbleached sugar and artificial sweetener."
Stephen Holden, The New York Times

"Director Nick Cassavetes lets his fine cast shine, but the film is often too pretty for its own good, diluting the intended impact… Striking South Carolina locations lend authenticity, but the highly art-designed, carefully composed widescreen visuals at times undercut the drama."
Sheri Linden, BoxOffice Magazine