The Notebook, Sponsored By Kleenex (The Notebook (DVD))

Member Name: collingwood21

Product:	The Notebook (DVD)
Date:	21/04/09 (292 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It managed to reach even a hardened old cynic like me in the end

Disadvantages: Some parts are too corny for words

The Notebook (2004) - FILM ONLY REVIEW
Certificate 12A (UK) / PG13 (USA)

Director: Nick Cassavetes
Run time: 123 minutes

I sometimes wonder if modern films haven't somehow spoiled my ability to enjoy an old fashioned romance like "The Notebook". We have come to expect flashy special effects, unpredictable plot twists and surprise endings so much from the films we watch that when we are presented with a film that evidently will have none of these - you can tell exactly where it is all heading within two minutes of it starting, without ever having picked up the novel by Nicholas Sparks that the film is adapted from - that we feel we should bemoan it as being "predictable". Perhaps "predictable" is not always a bad thing, though. I found myself almost from habit looking for the twist that wasn't there, but once I had given up on this and settled into what was a surprisingly absorbing story, what I got was the sort of film that seemed to fall squarely into the "they don't make them like that anymore" camp. "The Notebook" therefore becomes the sort of film that can divide audiences very easily; some will think it is the most beautiful thing they have ever seen (and IMDB voters seem to agree, giving it a very respectable 8/10) while many others (probably of a more cynical disposition) will dismiss it as mushier than mushy peas and spend any time they have watching it repeatedly making that childish finger-down-throat gesture.

The framing storyline of "The Notebook" sees pensioners played by James Garner and Gena Rowlands meeting in a care home. She is suffering from Alzheimer's, prompting Garner's character to read a story to her from his notebook about a pair of star-crossed lovers, Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdam), who meet in the summer of 1940 in small town North Carolina. Initially intense and passionate, Noah and Allie soon fall in love and begin to share a tender intimacy that belies their young age. Of course, no true weepie is complete without the vicissitudes of fortune, and here it is the lovers' differing social status that prevents the course of true love from running smoothly. Both 17, Noah is a poor and headstrong country boy who works in a timber yard, while Allie is from a wealthy southern family and is preparing to go to university in the coming autumn. By the time war, fate and families have intervened to part our heroes, it is clear that things will not go as well for these characters as the initial blossoming of their love in a dreamy southern summer may have suggested. Taking us alternately between the present and the past, we see the story develop gradually until the final conclusion becomes unbearably obvious for the viewer.

"The Notebook" is primarily a safe, unthreatening, old-fashioned romantic drama that recreates the 1940s. This film seems in parts to be very realistic, while in others we are clearly seeing the conventions of Hollywood and modern mores creeping in. The scenes set in the 1940s generally fare better, with the nervous lovers being portrayed with a touching realism, and the soundtrack, settings and costumes easily sweeping you back into an age of Glenn Miller and the pre-civil rights era Deep South that is portrayed in a gently nostalgic fashion. The waterways and wildlife of North Carolina are filmed in an appreciative manner, giving visuals that range from chocolate-box pretty to stunningly romantic sunsets that help support the story. Not all is quite right, though. For a film set in North Carolina, there is a distinct lack of southern accents to note; although I have not read the novel, I got the impression that the setting was supposed to be integral to the story, yet here it may have been filmed almost anywhere in the rural US that would have given equally pretty cinematography. The fact that it was Southern seemed almost incidental. Likewise, the values expressed (and bathing suits worn) by some of the characters seemed somewhat too liberal for the 1940s, especially when set in such a conservative society, something which I suspect was down to the filmmakers trying to spice things up a bit rather than being taken directly from the novel it was based on. The current day scenes, while fairly brief in the film overall, feature a Hollywood portrayal of what is labelled as "dementia", which I found to be uncomfortable and quite frankly borders on the insulting, but which appears to have made it into the film as a convenient plot device nonetheless.

The filmmakers got the casting pretty much right, and I have no major complaints about the acting. The first half hour of the film, showing the initial courtship of our two heroes was slightly embarrassing (take, for example, the dancing on the back porch with downtrodden black workers - I've not seen anything so buttock-clenchingly naff since the all too similar dancing below decks sequence in "Titanic") and I did wonder whether the leads would ever be able to show any convincing screen chemistry. Thankfully this improved greatly later on in the film, when the leads were able to lift the story above being a sappy romance, and I thought Gosling in particular was impressive in his role, especially later in the film as a broken man who has lost so much. The older players likewise do as good a job as can be expected of a script that often contains some very cheesy dialogue. The scriptwriters, however, seemed to think that they were hiding some big secret about the content of the eponymous notebook that will be dramatically revealed later on. Perhaps some people will genuinely not catch on (at least that seems to be their hope) but I think anyone of even limited intelligence will know exactly what is going on and not be fooled.

In the end, I don't think I have ever seen a film that sets out with the intention make you cry quite so much as this one before. The film is in places shamelessly emotionally manipulative - I mean those places where it is not being merely sentimental or indulging in rose-tinted nostalgia for a golden-hued 1940s where war and the losses sustained in it require only the briefest of mentions and are then forgotten - but I think it would take a very harsh cynic indeed not to feel the prickling of tears towards the end. As much as I rationalised the content, I admit that this film did manage to get to me more than any other I have watched since "Bambi", and I suspect a good film (rather like a good book) is one that manages to make you feel something, whatever that emotional involvement may ultimately be. Yes, it has significant flaws, but when the closing credits rolled I did feel a strange sense of satisfaction and of having enjoyed the film, despite the many good reasons why I really shouldn't have. The thing is, despite all the bad bits, the film does work surprisingly well about two thirds of the time, and I suspect that it will have wide appeal to viewers as long as you don't mind a story that leads by emotion - or one that makes you watch with a box of tissues on hand. It is ultimately the cinematic equivalent of golden syrup; and it turns out that I have a sweeter tooth than I ever thought possible.

Recommended (despite my more rational judgement!).



Film website: www.newline.com/properties/notebookthe.html

Summary: Not quite the epic it sets out to be, but watchable nonetheless