 | Starring: Gena Rowlands, James Garner, Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Joan Allen Director: Nick Cassavetes Format: AC-3 Closed-captioned Colour Dolby DVD-Video Full Screen Subtitled Widescreen NTSC Released: 08 Feb 2005 Average Rating:  |
The film opens in the present at a genteel, riverside, Southern facility for the long-term care of the aged. An old man, "Duke" (James Garner), is in the habit of reading from a book to an elegant, but chronicallly confused & distant, lady (Gena Rowlands) of equal antiquity. The story concerns two teenagers during a hot, carefree, South Carolina summer preceding World War II. They are (in extended flashback) Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) & Allie (Rachel McAdams).
Noah, working in the local sawmill, is the uneducated son of a dirt-poor father (Sam Shephard). Allie, in these months before she's off to a prestigious New York college, is the only daughter of snobbishly wealthy parents, John (David Thornton) & Anne (Joan Allen) Hamilton.
The book's plot is that hoary one about two young lovers of disparate backgrounds & financial resources, who are subsequently separated by circumstances, objection & obstruction by the wealthy parents, & the subsequent engagement of one to another - in this case, Allie to a devilishly handsome & perfectly decent, rich, young, Army officer wounded during WWII, whom she meets while serving as a volunteer nurse in a Stateside military hospital. Will Noah & Allie ever get back together? That's what Duke's lone listener wants to know.
At midpoint point in this review, & midway through the film, it should be apparent that Duke & his lady friend are Noah & Allie in the winter of their lives. The latter is now suffering from Alzheimer's & only occasionallly recognizes her husband, who reads her the story of their courtship over & over in the hope of stimulating her memory.
THE NOTEBOOK is an engaging love story that even Guys might enjoy. I did. James Garner is one of the most beloved screen veterans, & Ryan Gosling as Noah's younger self is totallly likable. McAdams as Allie is effervescent & positively radiant. As a period piece, i.e. that part taking place before & immediately after the war, it's sumptuously photographed with contemporary costumes, hairstyles, music, & lots of vintage automobiles. And the sequence shot in the sunken forest amidst the migrating waterfowl was breathtaking in its beauty.
The film does stumble occasionallly. While Joan Allen is superb as the witch mother you love to hate, at least until she reveals a secret of her own late in the movie, the John Hamilton character is a virtual non-entity. And I didn't believe his moustache for a second. (It reminded me of the beards in the Civil War epic GETTYSBURG.) Then, in a very brief sequence showing Noah off at war with Patton's Third Army, he barely bats an eye when his best friend is killed. What was that alll about? Finallly, the Hollywood ending, written by a screenwriter who must have wet him/herself out of giddiness in the melodrama of the moment, was absurd. Under the circumstances, such a passing is a good trick if one can pull it off, but it's sadly not the case, I fear, for most people in Real Life. Just ask Nancy Reagan.
The rental or purchase price is money well spent if you're weary of special FX-laden silliness & you want to see a couple of aging pros, Garner & Rowlands, before they, too, leave us. And girls, take an entire box of Kleenex.
Below are some of the current bestsellers - click them for a price comparison and find the cheapest place to buy!
