The Notebook (New Line Platinum Series)

This is my all time favorite movie! It is one of the best love stories of all times! it makes me cry everytime! The Notebook is one of thoes movies i had to own!

Seriously, I don't get the rave reviews for this movie. People I know are ranting about it as if actually came within a mile of such love classics as "Titanic", "Pearl Harbor", and "A Walk in the Clouds". Trust me, it doesn't; this film doesn't set a toe on the royal grounds of films like that. And what beats me is, why? This movie has an excellent story, is based on a breathtakingly moving book, and stuck almost entirely to the book; what went wrong??

Maybe it's the characterizations. Let's start with romantic hero (or maybe fanatic) Noah. The initial meeting between them, so gently lovely in the book, is nothing even close in the movie. Instead of a mutual attraction like the one in the book, we have heroine Ally on a date with someone else and Noah chasing her like some lovesick clown. She's not interested, he won't take no for an answer, and he follows her around the whole date, even hanging from a bar on the ferris wheel, dangling in front of her seat at one point! Is this supposed to be endearing? I found it annoyingly idiotic: this guy isn't a romantic, he's a clownish dope. Eventually, for reasons I can't remember, Ally agrees to a date and finds herself slowly drawn into him. It's beyond me why; his idea of quiet time is lying on a street beneath a traffic light, late at night when the street's deserted. When he does this in front of her, she slowly lies down and joins him on the pavement with a thoughtful look on her face, as though she actually finds what he's doing to be clever or interesting (or maybe I mistook that look on her face; she could have been wondering if he'd resist when she drove him to a mental home. I rather prefer that theory). When a car nearly hits them as they're lying in the street, they scream, jump up and run, and for some reason afterwards Ally decides he's fun enough for her to date again (I guess almost getting killed by a car does give one a thrill). Their relationship progresses ever deeper after that.

The good news: Noah's character stops being an idiot and becomes deeper, along with his love for Ally. The bad news? Once Noah gives up the title of date-hungry goofball, Ally's character picks it up. Ally, to my disappointment, becomes a needy chatterbox. In the first sex scene, they go into an abandoned house and begin making love on the floor. Once they're naked and halfway into the act, Ally wrenches her lips from his long enough to say, "Are we really doing it? Are we really having sex?" He grabs her lips again, but she pulls away and says, "No really, are we actually doing this?" Well honey, he's halfway into you and your clothes are lying over there; what do you think? For some reason, the girl doesn't shut up. She keeps yapping about what a big thing it is they're doing and the scene, for me, was totally ruined (judging from poor Noah's exasperated face, it was ruined for him too). Why the director felt the need to give Ally so much unnecessary dialogue at such an unnecessary time is beyond me. This isn't the only time there's a flood of unnecessary chatter, either: when they break up not long afterward, their painful argument ends with Noah hopping in his truck and preparing to speed off. Ally watches in quiet anger and the pathos of the scene is effective..until Ally runs up to the truck and starts yapping in the window "Are we really breaking up? No seriously, are we really doing this, Noah?" Naturally, he gives her a disgusted look and speeds off anyway. WHAT is with this scene? Silent anger one minute, the girl blathering like an idiot in his face the next? Are movies like this the reason people think women can't make up their minds?

The rest of the plot is completely contrived, from them getting back together and face-sucking like mad in a rainstorm, to the scene where they finally make love, with Ally yanking Noah's pants down and Noah carrying her up the stairs with his trousers down around his ankles. And the killer is, it SHOULD have been moving! What's missing? Credibility I guess, or real pathos. The single flawless scene in the movie consists of Ally sitting on Noah's porch in early morning, painting while wrapped in a blanket the night after their love-making. If every scene had been as gentle, as sincere and vulnerable as this, the movie would have soared. Instead, it just came off as a would-be model for a moving film. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking this is a classic on the same plains as a Shakespeare or a Titanic. It's a semi-effective chick flick, and that's it. If you want to know my views of the film's ending (which I don't wish to spoil here), please read the first comment in this review's comment section.

I can't believe it took me so long to see this movie. I tend to stick to the older love stories, like Breakfast At Tiffany's, Casablanca, Gone With The Wind, etc..difficult love intrigues more more than the simple boy meets girl, she must chose, teen angst, first love romance. Which is what The Notebook is and yet it amazed me from beginning to end. It's a typical love story in so many ways and yet it's able to stand on it's own as a epic love story like no other.

What makes The Notebook so different are the actors. Enough can not be said about classics like James Garner and Gena Rowlands who are spectacular as the aging Noah and Allie. That said it was truly Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling that stole this entire film with every single scene they are in. You felt the connection between Allie and Noah from the start and knew that this kind of love was so pure and true and yet they were sweet, real, endearing, cute and most of all humorous.

Allie is the spoiled city girl from big time money and yet she's down to earth, witty and leads her life with her heart. Noah is a simple, sweet country boy who only has eyes for Allie from the moment he sees her. Noah sees a light in Allie that no one else can see and she becomes the color in his dull world. Noah is also the man all women want. He makes promises and he sticks to them. He loves with all of his heart and he finished what he starts.

They met, they fall in love and they are separated by parents, school, war, time and new people in their life. Allie who is lead by her emotions finds a new love but Noah ends up hardened by lose in war and his fathers death. He has a relationship with another but purely for physical needs because he can not give his heart to anyone but Allie. He then puts all his time into building the dream house she wanted thinking it will bring her back one day.

Seven years separate them. Allie is engaged to a man who is truly perfect for her world until she sees a picture of Noah in the paper and her world comes crashing down. Allie is then drawn back to Noah and feels she must see him again for reasons she does fully understand yet. She goes to him and finds her love for him is still as strong as ever and has been bottled up for seven years..(in one of the hottest movie sex scenes ever..check out the DVD extra's). Allie must finally take hold of her own life and do what she truly wants instead of what is expected of her. She must make a choice between a wealthy, easy life with a man who loves her or the not so easy life with someone who challenges her and loves her even more for exactly who she is. In the end Allie goes with her heart and and chooses Noah simply because she loves him more.

The Notebook is about how far love can really go. Through time, hardship, pain, lose, disease, illness and the heavy had of time, nothing changes true love.

I do not prefer romances and I do not like Nick Sparks... But I did like this movie. I had always heard my girl friends swoon over it but refused to watch it. One day, sick in bed, it was all I had to watch. And I have to say, not only did I like it, I cried a little. (And by a little, I mean a lot.) The idea of a life-long love appeals to some but not to most. Today's society no longer understands enduring love -- probably why it doesn't appeal to men or teenage crowds. Regardless, it is your A-Typical era-long love story with a sad ending. But the journey was worth it. And I hope those that do watch this movie with hesitation walk away learning a little something about marriage and love and the way those two work together to surmount life-long dedication. There -- now I sound like a girl.

There is a simple explanation for why someone would give a bad rating for this movie...they have never known what it's like to have loved and lost or almost lost someone. This movie makes sense to people who believe to have met their soul mate. That magical connection that Noah and Alli portray is only something some of us get to experience and understand.

Therefore, this movie gets five stars from me and is my favorite movie of all time. I've never been so glued to the television. I've never cried so hard at emotions being acted out, or the writing striking so close to home. I do not seek out tear-jerker movies and finding this movie was an accident. Well done!!