Review of The Notebook (2004) by Alex J — 03 Sep 2014

There's such a sphere of public opinion surrounding this movie, that I feel like people either don't even watch it anymore or forget that it's actually good in the first place.

Some people watch this and see constructed gender roles, unrealistic portrayals of romance, and idealistic fantasies.

I watch this movie and see a period drama about how two people fall in love, and grow old together before one of them slips into senility and they both die.

Of course before their conscious minds are rendered meaningless, there's a bunch of cute stuff and a fair amount of pain.

This movie tells us that for these two characters, their love however flawed, still outweighed their pain. What's wrong with that?

And about the argument that this movie's just fantasy designed to make audiences feel good: we tell ourselves made up stories everyday. An example, for instance is telling yourself that your opinion or politics matter at all to the primarily cold and unforgiving universe on the large scale, or on a slightly smaller to a single couple very much in love.