A few things I like about The Notebook

Rating: Null/10 (12 September 2004)

Spoilers
It's a story, no it's two stories, both of which we have seen times and again. To link the two together is perceptive, but that's to the credit of the writer of the book on which the movie is based. The movie makers, however, are still faced with the task of making something that we come across as often as pancake, bacon and chickens (thanks, Noah) into something that at least delights, if not deeply touches the audience. Generally, it has been successfully done.
First and foremost is the cast. The last time I saw Ryan Gosling was in The Believer, when he plays an explosive, complex character of as Nazi who actually had a Jewish origin. So I know what he is capable of. As Noah in The Notebook, he displays most of the time a stoicism that reminds me of Josh Lucas. But then there are one or two explosive moments when we see the fire in him. Rachel McAdam from St. Thomas, Ontario I've not seen before. In her, I see a little bit of Kate Beckinsale. She will go a lot further than the lot in Mona Lisa Smiles. The last time I saw Gena Rowlands was too recent, in Taking Lives, an entirely different role. In Notebook, the role she plays may not seem too difficult  someone who has lost her memory (politicians perfect that performance on a daily basis!) But then, it's in the moment she regains her memory that we see her true steel. The biggest joy is seeing James Gardner still so active in making movies. True, he has a most winning role to play, but it also needs a winning actor to make it work.
All the scenes between Gosling and McAdam and between Gardner and Rowlands have been commented on. Not having gone through all the comments, I cannot say that no one commented on the one particular scene that really delighted me. This is the encounter between Allie and Martha (Noah's mate at the time, a lonely war widow) at Noah's house the morning after Noah and Allie rediscovered each other. From the moment the three appear together at the door in the morning, to the evening when Noah sees Martha off in her car, it's so elegantly done, and quite touching.
This is one of the movies in which a house plays a very important, pivotal role in the story. Two others that come to mind immediately are Shipping News and Life as a House.
Younger members of the audience may leave the cinema in a strange mood, not certain whether it's a story in which the lovers live happily ever after. I tend to look at it as an answer to a question posted in the title of the Bee Gee's most popular song 'How deep is your love'. James Gardner (the role he plays) is the answer.