Review of The Notebook (2004) by Filipeneto — 13 Sep 2019

This is the typical dramatic novel that comes out of the mind of Nicholas Sparks, the young teen's favorite author. The story tells the romance between Noah, a young poor man, and Allie, the daughter of wealthy parents who do not approve of this dating and decide to marry her with someone with more money. Their love story began in 1940 and continued through time, coming to us through the mouth of an old man, who reads an old diary to an equally old lady, who is already suffering from dementia.

Usually, sugary and melodramatic novels are not to my liking but this movie has been reasonably digestible, largely due to the satisfactory performance of the main cast. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams were able to create a good chemistry together, and that went into the scenes where they are together. There are some dialogues between them that are so sugary that they seem to have been taken from a Brazilian soap opera, but the actors commitment is genuine. Gena Rowlands gave life to an elderly Allie quite well, but it was even better to see the performance of charismatic James Garner as old Noah.

Nick Cassavetes has done a satisfactory job as director, keeping a good pace and achieving a serious, elegant and balanced end product. The soundtrack is quite good, taking good advantage of the rhythms in vogue in the Forties and Fifties. Photography and filming is regular, denoting careful post-production and editing work.

Although this movie sometimes exaggerates in romance and sugar, and it pisses me off a little, its usually a satisfying movie, that gives us an interesting, though very common, love story, very similar to a million of forbidden love affairs already told in soap operas, leaflet novels, cheap literature and B-movies.