Directed by: Nick Cassavetes
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Joan Allen, Kevin Connolly, James Marsden
My understanding is the ending for this film is different than the one for Nicholas Sparks' novel on which it is based. After reading a synopsis of the book, including its ending, I believe the filmmakers made a correct choice to change it. The film's ending, although unlikely, is more cinematic and moving. The book's ending is appropriately sad and probably more realistic, but who wants to see a movie about an aging man trying to stir his wife (suffering from dementia) into remembering their past, but ultimately they both die before she can remember anything? What a bummer.
As The Notebook opens, the older man Duke (Garner) reads from a notebook to an older woman named Allie who lives at the same nursing home. The notebook contains the story of a love born long ago. The woman apparently has never heard the story before and eagerly anticipates the ending, or does she already know it? Duke is a compassionate, loving man, who of course is the woman's husband, although she doesn't remember him or their children. He is hoping against hope that he can somehow penetrate her dementia, even for a spell. Doctors warn him that he is running a fool's errand, but Duke remains persistent and optimistic despite his own health issues. I can't say I disagree with him.
The story he tells is about their romance which began in pre-World War II South Carolina. The younger version of the couple is played by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, both of whom are very appealing. Rachel McAdams has a wide-eyed smile that lights up the screen. Allie is a city girl spending the summer in South Carolina before going North to college. Gosling gives Noah (Duke's real name) a fierce, worldly intelligence despite his character's rural upbrining. He reads Walt Whitman and understands Allie's defiant, spirited nature. Unlike many movie romances where both are just too perfect and ideal to be human, Noah and Allie behave as normal couples do, even those very much in love. "That's what we do. We fight. I tell you when you're being stubborn and you tell me when I'm being a horse's ass," Noah tells Allie, "We'll have to work at this every day."
After their first summer together, the two break up under pressure from Allie's mother (Allen), who disapproves of her daughter seeing "trash" as she puts it. Her mother may have more experience in this area than she would care to admit. A few years pass, much of which are engulfed by World War II, where Noah fights in Europe while Allie volunteers as an Army nurse. It is there she meets Lon (Marsden), a wounded soldier who comes from old Southern money and is very sweet and loves Allie. He does absolutely nothing wrong. His only flaw is that he is not Noah, who stays on Allie's mind even though they had been apart for years.
After Allie becomes engaged to Lon, she sees a newspaper article featuring Noah and goes back to rural South Carolina to see him. Does she wish to say goodbye to him once and for all? Or does she still love him? A powerful scene during a fierce thunderstorm provides the answer, in which profess that "it's not over for me." Allie is then forced to choose between security with Lon or love with the poorer Noah. The older Allie is on the edge of her seat wondering which man she will choose, although she says she may have heard the story before.
The Notebook is a moving, idealized romance with very real, human characters. Is the romance idealized because that's how Noah/Duke remembers it or is it because that's how he wants Allie to remember it? The story in the notebook Duke reads to Allie could be a bestseller all by itself, but his only mission is to have Ally remember their love one more time before dementia grabs a permanent hold of her. His children beg for him to come home, but he poignantly states, "That's my sweetheart in there, I'm not leaving her. She is my home now."
The Notebook remains the best of the filmed adaptations of Sparks' novels. Message In A Bottle, The Lucky One, and Safe Haven were the other ones I've seen, but they didn't work for me for one reason or another. The Notebook contains strong performances and a story I cared about. Sure it's a mushy tearjerker, but it does the job and does it well. There is plenty of abundant sunshine and beautiful scenery, as in all films based on Sparks novels, and it seems the rain comes only as a way of telegraphing crucial plot developments (as is with every other movie adaptation of his novels). Something tells me the scene on the dock between Noah and Allie would work just as well if it were 75 degrees and not a cloud was in the sky.
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