The Notebook Review

by Mark R. Leeper (markrleeper AT yahoo DOT com)
July 26th, 2004

THE NOTEBOOK
    (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

    CAPSULE: This is a lush but cliched love story,
    based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks. Don't
    expect any surprises in this by-the-numbers,
    rich-girl-poor-boy love story. The photography
    is lush but the main plot line of the rich girl
    and the country boy is just too familiar and
    cliched. The viewer seems to know what will
    happen long before the characters do. Rating:
    0 (-4 to +4) or 4/10

In a nursing home an elderly man lovingly reads a story to a woman suffering from senile dementia. They are played by James Garner and Gena Rowlands. The story he is reading is of two young star- crossed lovers. Allie (played by Rachel McAdams) is the daughter of a wealthy upper class family with social standing. Noah (Ryan Gosling) is handsome and likable, but he works at a sawmill. With dash and daring, and some acrobatics on a ferris wheel, Noah wins over Allie. But Allie's mother is dead set against having her daughter marry a man with such limited prospects.

The film really tells two love stories. One about young love and one about two people near the end of their lives. The film spends most of its time in the story about the young lovers. That is probably how Nicholas Sparks's novel is written, but it is a mistake. The film has nothing new or original to say about young love. It is just a reiteration that the path to true love never runs smoothly. This is a well-trodden path and the story does not wander from it for long. The love of the two older people is where most of the interest of the film lies simply because stories of elderly love are much less common and the people feel more real. It also helps that Garner and Rowlands are both fine actors. But even in that part of the story it runs on autopilot and has no surprises.

If I were doctoring this screenplay, I might have shown more of the town and how World War II brought the changes that it inevitably did. We are given two quick scenes of World War II to see how it changed Noah. But they keep these scenes soft and though there is a death it is bloodless. The rest of the film is visualized as a sentimental Hallmark card in a setting that is virtually timeless and unchanging. Cinematographer Robert Fraisse gives us some nice bird photography and keeps the story of the young lovers filtered with earth tones and dramatic red skies. Scenes of the older lovers are decorated in colder blues and grays.

Noah and Allie are young and reasonably attractive as a couple, but not particularly engaging. Sam Shepherd plays Noah's father. The film seems compelled to show us that though he be poor and white in the South, some of his best friends are blacks, just so it is clear that though some people in the South are racist at this time, he is not. That seems a little artificial. Joan Allen plays Allie's very formal mother. She seems to do well, but it is not her first roles as a strong-willed woman. On the other hand, David Thornton as her husband seems much more weak-kneed and like a little boy behind a big moustache.

This film tries hard to create a mood, but does it more with camerawork than with writing. The script by Jeremy Leven is unambitious. I rate THE NOTEBOOK a 0 on the -4 to +4 scale or 4/10.

Mark R. Leeper
[email protected]
Copyright 2004 Mark R. Leeper

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