The Notebook (2004) **1/2

Rating: 6/10 (9 February 2013)

I try to be a fair partner when it comes to my relationships with the opposite sex, and unfortunately my girlfriend is a hopeless romantic when it comes to her movies and books. She is willing to check out most of the films I enjoy (with the exception of more explicit horror films; she tells me they give her nightmares), so I think it's only fair that I endure some of her favorites now and then. So last evening we watched her DVD of THE NOTEBOOK. It stars Rachel McAdams and Sam Shepard. Now let me see if you've heard this one before: A young girl (McAdams) is at first turned off to a demonstrative young man (Shepard). Eventually he grows on her and they fall madly in love. Problems arise when the girl's parents feel the boyfriend is not the best choice for her. So she finds another boyfriend. But her first lover doesn't give up... and then...
I did not hate the film. Actually, even though it's mostly predictable and it's typical of millions of other chick flicks like it, I did appreciate the way it was structured. It's a story set in the 1940s that's told in flashback from a 2004 hospital as an elderly man (James Garner) reads the story to an old woman suffering from Alzheimer's (Gena Rowlands). The revelation here was not unpredictable either from the get go, but the film itself doesn't make a mystery out of it by the midway point anyway. I did get emotional during the final few scenes of the movie, and I'll tell you one thing - some sad things in life scare me more than those make believe horror films which my girlfriend prefers to avoid. **1/2 out of ****