"Iris" Redux

Rating: 6/10 (24 July 2004)

One might categorize "The Notebook" as the ultimate "chick flick" since there is little in the story to appeal to male viewers. Not much takes place that has not happened in dozens of other films. A young man and a young woman meet, they fall in love, they face obstacles, they part, they... Well, if you have been to the movies sometime in the past 100 years, you can fill in the rest. However, the movie does have a framing device that bears a striking resemblance to the recent bio film about writer Iris Murdoch, "Iris." In the earlier film, however, the story balance was tilted towards the older characters, while in "The Notebook," the younger players hold center stage. The downbeat nature of "Iris" was bearable because of the towering performances of Judi Dench and Jim Broadbent. Unfortunately, "The Notebook" is less distinguished. While the older pair, Gena Rowlands and James Garner, are seasoned pros and do an able job, particularly Garner, the cast in the earlier scenes are just O.K., although paddling through a Disneyesque lake filled with thousands of white geese and keeping a straight face must require a great deal of acting discipline. At times the entire film is as cloying as that treacly rippling-water scene despite desperate attempts to be moving and touching. While "Iris" rose above its depressing subject matter with unforgettable performances that could break the heart of the most hardened stoic, "The Notebook" fails to evoke a single tear and turns a similar story into a sappy sentimental "date film."