The Notebook (Wide Screen) > Reviews > A Classic Tear-jerker

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Good
Characters / Performances	Good
Special Effects	Unmemorable
How does it compare to similar films?	Outstanding

Advantages:	Romantic
Disadvantages:	predictable

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I'd never even heard of this film before I sat down to watch it in South Africa, but one of the girls had been raving about it, said it reduced her to tears, so I thought I'd give it a go.
Now I hardly ever cry at films (Land Before Time, being the only one I can remember), even Gladiator, which is increadibly sad at the end only had me choked, but this.....left me with tears streaming down my face. At first I thought it was due to the fact that I might have been missing a certain someone, but no it would appear not, as I watched it again last night and ended up in exactly the same state!!

Apparently 'the most romantic movie since Titanic' The Notebook is a typical romantic film in so many ways, which of course, is bound to make it slightly predictable, but I don't see the harm in that every now and again. I think it also makes it very easy to watch, unlike if, for example, you were watching The Matrix for the first time and you have to pay attention to every little detail.

The film starts with 'Duke' (James Garner) reading a love story to his ladyfriend in a hospital/retirement home. The story begins when Ali (Rachel McAdams) is 17 and living in Seabrook for the summer, before going back to the city and back to college.
She bumps into Noah (Ryan Gosling), a lumberjack at the local timber yard, at a fair one night and thats pretty much the start of a whirlwind summer romance. But romance never runs smoothly and as well as the fact that they fight fairly frequently, there is the added complication of Ali's parents. Who, of course, think Noah is unsuitable for their daughter.
So as the summer draws to a close Noah and Ali unwillingly go their separate ways.
Noah continues to work as a lumberjack, before signing up into the army to fight for the war and then comes back and builds his dream house.
Ali, on the otherhand, goes off to college, volunteers as a nurse in the war and meets Lon (a soldier), to whom she eventually ends up engaged. Lon is everything Ali's parents could have hoped for, well educated and of the right class, so Ali is finally happy once again.
That is until she meets Noah again and has to decided between her fiancee and her first love.

Thoughout this story there are various interupptions by the old couple, who nobody knows who they are or how they come into it. It would seem possible that the old lady could be Ali, but then it is still unclear who 'Duke' would be if that were the case.

It did annoy me very slightly that they kept focusing on this older couple as in a way I felt that it kept breaking the flow of the story. It does, however, start to make sense once you get to the end of the film, which is very very sad, but I can't go into that without ruining the ending, so I'll just say have the tissues (and possibley a tub of Ben and Jerry's) at the ready.

I thought that the lead acting was done very well, especially as I'd never heard of either Ryan Gosling or Rachel McAdams before. I couldn't tell you how good an adaptation it is from the original book, seeing as I have never read it (maybe I should put that on my to do list), but it is an enjoyable film thagt is probably guarenteed to please the girls.

Running Time: 118 mins
Cert: I think the actual film is a 12, but the DVD is rated 15 due to some of the additional mayerial being classified slightly higher. There are also some bonus features on the DVD, including:

• Optional Filmmakers Feature Length Commentaries
• 3 Featurettes
• Casting
• Theatrical Trailer

I did enjoy this film. I hope you do to.