Well ladies, if you ever wanted a movie just for you, you now have it. I let fan excitement here at RopeofSilicon.com get me all hyped up for this film and I won’t lie, I love a good chick flick, but The Notebook has got to be one of the sappiest movies I have ever had the displeasure of viewing.
Depending on your viewpoint, you are either going to love or hate this flick, while I tend to fall in the latter category there are those out there that are sure to sop up every melodramatic moment because this thing is dripping. In short, it’s the ultimate chick flick about the ultimate love. There is nothing in this world that could destroy this love or even put a dent in it. The movie comes to a rather dramatic conclusion that is literally trying so hard to just reach into your eyes and pull the tears out.
If you don’t know already The Notebook is based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks and follows a story told by an old man (James Garner) to a woman he regularly visits at a nursing home (Gena Rowlands). As he reads from his old notebook the story he describes tells the lives of young Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) and Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) who fall in love but are soon separated due to social status and Noah’s stint in World War II. Through a little bit of effort and a lot of chance the two are reunited 14 years and several decisions later.
The Notebook is just as much an actor’s movie as it is a location movie, with brilliant landscapes and awesome scenery, which you can check out a couple of pictures in my gallery here. As for the actors, everyone plays their parts well, and it was nice to see Gosling finally get out of playing the quiet tormented kid we have come to know him for from movies like Murder by Numbers and The United States of Leland.
McAdams on the other hand is a relative newcomer who experienced success in this year’s Lindsay Lohan hit Mean Girls and after her work here there is no reason to expect we won’t be seeing a lot more of her in the near future.
I was drawn in to this film by its brilliant settings and amazing landscapes, but sooner rather than later it just became too much for me to take. You can give me Shakespeare in Love and even You’ve Got Mail any day, but this love story is far too over the top for me.
