Sticking with Hollywood for now, we move on to Nick Cassavettes' THE NOTEBOOK, which was hugely popular on release. At the time I worked at a video distributor and the movie’s sheer ubiquity kept me from taking an interest. Now, enough time has passed, that I’m able to give it a fresh look.
It’s easy to see why THE NOTEBOOK struck a chord – it’s a classic tearjerker. I don’t think it would resonate the way it does, though, without the central performances from Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams.
The movie starts as a summer romance between the young couple who are eventually torn apart by class differences, and then further torn apart by the advent of WW2. When they’re finally reunited, McAdams is engaged to marry a guy her parents approve of (James Marsden) and Gosling is still pining for her, having just restored a mansion in the hopes that she’d come spend her life with him there.
This story is framed by another story involving an older couple in an old folks’ home. James Garner plays a man who is reading the Gosling/McAdams love story to Gena Rowlands, who seems to be suffering from dementia or Alzheimers.
Spoiler alert: it’s the same couple!
I knew this going into the movie, and watching the movie I realized it was made fairly clear to the audience early on, as well. That surprised me because I thought part of the heartbreaking ending was the big reveal. But I guess not.
The ending is sad, especially as Rowlands floats in and out of knowing who Garner is. And, the romance leading up to it is moving, as well. Still, the stuff of the story itself is fairly thoroughly covered terrain and at times plays as if every cliché in the book was added up and put into one movie.
But, the performances save it! Particularly McAdams, who brings a goofy joy to her portrayel of the rich girl torn between worlds. Usually this kind of role is totally humorless, but McAdams plays it as real, and because of that, we see all the joy in it.
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