The Notebook

Genre:

Drama/Romance

Director:

Nick Cassavetes

Cast:

Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Joan Allen, James Marsden, Jamie Brown, Sam Shepard, David Thornton, Kevin Connolly, Heather Wahlquist, Ed Grady, Obba Babatunde, Mark Johnson and Starletta DuPois

Novel | IMDb | Trailer | Honest Trailer | Wikipedia

I watched The Notebook with friends several years ago. I just watched several scenes because my friends thought the movie was boring. But I know the main plot of the story. Last week I watched it again in order to prepared myself to read the novel. And here is the review :)

At a nursing home, an elderly man named Duke reads a romantic story from his notebook to his friend, an elderly woman. The story is about Noah Calhoun, a country boy who meets and falls in love with Allie Hamilton, a girl who spends summer at Seabrook. They spend so much time together, share dreams and love. Allie’s parents think that Noah is not good enough for her. Soon Allie and her family went back to New York, leaving Noah. Noah writes a letter everyday for a year but no one gets answered by Allie. Then the war is coming. Noah enlisted with his friend. Meanwhile Allie volunteers as a nurse and met a patient, Lon Hammond, Jr.  

The Notebook was good and I can’t believe I cried so much in the end. The story was simple yet sweet and interesting. Although, I knew how the story is going to be like, I still enjoy it, especially with the twist at the end. If you read the synopsis above, you can see that the movie has two different stories. First, Noah and Allie then second, Duke and the elderly woman. In the end, they connected each other and become the twist. I think it is kind of rare and weird to find a twist in a romantic story, but the movie has it and it was good and acceptable :)

I think what make this movie so good to me is the fact that Rachel McAdams played the main role. She was so good played as Allie. Her laugh and act was so natural. I was always enjoyed Rachel McAdams’ movies, no matter what her role is. By the way, can’t you believe this movie and Mean Girls filmed at the same year? Yet for Ryan Gosling, I have nothing to say. I mean of course he is good. That’s it. I guess it is because his ‘handsome’ title and girls’ overreaction over that made me sick.

FYI, this movie started several iconic scenes that you can find in other Nicholas Sparks’ adaptations. For example, canoeing (The Safe Haven, The Lucky One), a house restoration (The Safe Haven, The Lucky One), kissing in the rain/shower (Dear John, The Lucky One), playing at the beach (The Last Song, The Safe Haven, Dear John), letters (Dear John, The Last Song) and the last is a ‘couple-about-to-kiss’ poster. I think all of the posters of Sparks’ adaptation are like that, doesn’t it? I pretty sure one or all of them can be found in the upcoming adaptation, The Best of Me ;p

My favorite scene: Allie pushes her ice cream to Noah’s mouth in purpose. Then she laughs and clears the ice cream leftover on Noah’s face and mouth with kisses!