“The Notebook” Movie Review

The Notebook

The focus of “The Notebook” is the same couple during two different stages of their existence. When they get older, she is lost in the love of Alzheimer’s, whereas they are seen in their youthful love lives. He established a habit of reading to her from a notebook that details how they first met, fell in love, and the challenges they overcame to create their current happy existence. She can remember who he is and who the tale is about because he occasionally wishes the clouds would part for a moment.

Alzheimer’s and Hope

All of us hope that Alzheimer’s will permit such times. When the play is over, there is never another act, but in the early stages of the disease it will allow. The notebook is full of romantic fantasies which are not harmful. We all tell fantasies to make life more bearable. There is sorrow during “Terms of Endearment” because the mother was given the opportunity for an essential and distinct separation from her children not because the mother was dying.

Allie and Noah

Allie Nelson and Noah Calhoun are the two lovers known as Duke. When old, they are played by Gena Rowlands and James Garner, when young by Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. The act suits the material in respect to the passion at the start and the sentiment at the end. A time is seen when young Noah tells Allie, “I don’t see how it gonna work” and keeps his word and a time when Allie gets committed to another man.

Different Backgrounds

They are of different classes, she is from a noble family, staying in a mansion in North Carolina and he is from a humble family, works in a sawmill but is poetic and brilliant. Noah fell in love with her immediately he saw her; he decides to hang his hands from a bar on a Ferris wheel until she goes out with him. Her parents are against their love. A day comes when the mother (Joan Allen) introduces her to a local worker telling Allie that she was in love with him 25 years ago. Allie thought her parents did not love each other, but her mother proves her wrong; Allen being a precise actress brings in the note of regret into the scene.

Nicholas Sparks and the Director

The film is centred on a novel by Nicholas Sparks whose books exhilarated “message in a bottle” (1999), Unloved by me and “A Walk to Remember” (2002) which was so captivating and optimistic. Here is a good story. The director is Nick Cassavetes, the child of Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes and maybe his inherent attitude towards his mother makes get past soap operas. Of the best actors of his era. Rachel McAdams shows such radiance and certainty realized once on how actors are gifted. Gena Rowlands and James Garner master their roles perfectly. Garner is sure of his skills and should be acknowledged for this. Put into mind how easily he tells their children; “Look, guys, that’s my sweetheart in there”. Rowlands here gets a calm exposure that is brilliant with her husband.

The Photography and the Ending

The photographer, Robert Fraisse does the work correctly making the story more idealized, more importantly, the retirement home at the end is more of heaven than earth. Emphasized also is the old mansion, young Noah believes that if he keeps his promise of rebuilding it for Allie, she will agree to move in with her (“Noah had gone a little mad,” the notebook says). The idea of Allie being engaged to marry another man worries him but does not make him discouraged.

Work Cited

Gemser, Gerda, Martine Van Oostrum, and Mark AAM Leenders. “The impact of film reviews on the box office performance of art house versus mainstream motion pictures.” Journal of Cultural Economics 31.1 (2007): 43-63.

Hall, Alice. “Film reviews and the public’s perceptions of stereotypes: Movie critics’ discourse about The Siege.” Communication Quarterly 49.4 (2001): 399-423.