Too cheesy and unrealistic

Rating: 1/10 (8 September 2009)

I like Rachel McAdams and Joan Allen. They acted well here but could not save the bland and contrived plot and the awkwardness and cheese oozing out of Ryan Gosling, as a prime example of the unbearable characterization with which the movie's 2nd half is filled. (the 1st half till they broke up at summer is pretty watchable). As Allie turned to leave Noah's house after her mother's visit and Noah broke out in a rage while reciting superfluous dialogue with a stiff palm on his chest, I just could not watch his performance for a second more (good thing there wasn't any more of it)! How on earth does a man sound so justified at getting mad at a woman leaving him, necessarily and potentially temporarily to sort out a melodramatic mess because she's engaged to someone else? Here's a loser who spent all his life missing a girl without any other ostensible ideals or goal in life (given I didn't read the book), and whose morals and maturity, assumed to be sound by default owing to an upbringing of stereotypical paternal love and wisdom, are now collapsing into a heap. Other parts that made me laugh/cringe include widow on the verge of going back to loneliness, her place taken by a prettier and richer girl, experiencing sublime feelings of love and hope, cheesy teary old Noah, and Joan Allen's sudden hysterics of "I love your father". So every rich girl needs a poor boy and then gets split for romance? I always thought the American depiction of love and human nature is much more true to life, but it seems traditions are traditions, from the Qiong Yao and Korean dramas to America in the 40s, lol. For Rachel McAdams I would give it a 6; a 5 for the over-ratedness and complete lack of empathy in characterization.