A flawed yet emotional romantic drama

Rating: 8/10 (15 June 2009)

I'm the kind of person who just loves to read novels, but I've never been an avid romance novel reader. I mean, how many guys would be? That means, of course, that I've never read The Notebook or any of Nicholas Sparks' novels. From what I've heard, some of them are really good, while others are either over-the-top or just silly. If I had to guess, though, I'd say the movie The Notebook was adapted from a novel belonging to the former category. That, or scriptwriters Jan Sardi and Jeremy Leven are really good at what they do. In any case, there's no denying that The Notebook is a compelling motion picture, and a very emotional kind of experience. It's what many would call a "tear-jerker" (an accurate description, considering how emotional the film is) but, at least in this case, calling it that it not a bad thing at all.
The film tells the story of Noah (James Garner as an adult, and Ryan Gosling as the younger version) and Allie. (Gene Rowlands in modern times, and Rachel McAdams during her younger years.) It's the year 2000, and Allie is suffering of dementia, something that is affecting her memory. With hopes of making her better, Noah is reading her from an old notebook, which recounts their story together; how they met, how they fell in love, and how they eventually ended up together. They met in America just before WWII; Noah was a working class teenager, while Allie belonged to a wealthy family. As most will be able to guess, their differences in terms of social classes became an issue, especially when Allie's mother (Joan Allen) found about their relationship. This lead to their break up, but fortunately for the both of them, destiny made them find each other again after the war, and just before Allie married an equally wealthy and undeniably charming soldier. (James Marsden.) If there's a reason why The Notebook worked so great for me, it's because it's so damned emotional. The story is predictable, as well the twists and turns the scriptwriters keep throwing at the audience, but the movie is presented in such a manner that it's not hard to feel for the characters and want them to end up together. Technically, it's brilliant - pre-WWII America is presented very accurately, and the film provides with such beautiful photography that it's hard not to fall in love with it. It's a beautiful-looking film, and as it's usually the case, it tells the story of two equally pretty people who just can't seem to be together. Their romance is pretty straightforward stuff - I actually thought at times it was too dramatic and that it resembled a cheap soap opera a little too much - but what made the story so compelling was the contrast between their early life and the situation in the 21st century. It may be due to my fears or to how I feel towards the topic, but the fact that Allie couldn't recognize Noah and that he just kept reading at her and loving her... OK, let's just say it's pretty powerful stuff.
If there's a genre that depends a lot on performances, it's the romantic drama; if your leads don't have any chemistry between each other, if they can't sell the romance to the audience, then your movie is pretty much screwed. Fortunately, that's not the case in here. Rachel McAdams is beautiful and compelling; she turns Allie into a charming, likable kind of character, the kind of girl you just want to be happy. Ryan Gosling is equally good, although I felt at times his interpretation of Noah lacked a little characterization, a little charm. In any case, he does have chemistry which McAdams, making every encounter between them bloom with passion. As the older versions of this characters, James Garner and Jena Rowlands are really good too although, at least for me, it was hard to believe those two were the same people who appear in the flashbacks. They just don't look alike or even feel alike.
Something that bothered me a little and that many critics have mentioned about the film, is that it feels a little restrained. Considering hat subject matter, and the fact that it's a very dramatic, slow-moving, emotional and occasionally sad, I don't think many teenagers would want to watch the movie. So why then the PG-13 rating? Every time Noah and Allie were involved in a sex scenes, tricky camera-work was used to make sure no nudity was shown, and the actors even are positioned in such a way that it looks forced and awkward, only to make sure, again, that they don't show any skin. If you're going to have a film that contains quite a bit of sexuality and that doesn't appeal to many underage viewers, it doesn't make any sense to restrain it. Many members of the audience won't even notice this, but it definitely bothered me.
As most of my readers may have already noticed, The Notebook is flawed, but a movie doesn't have to be a flawless masterpiece in order to be enjoyable. The Notebook is a romantic drama, and in order to succeed, it only has to do a couple of things: provide with solid romantic moments, have a believable leading couple and, if possible, make its viewers cry. I can say that this film achieved all three objectives, and that if you don't cry while watching it, especially during the last few scenes, you just don't have a soul. OK, so the filmmakers might be cheating - sometimes it's almost as if Nick Cassavettes and his team were trying to throw pepper-spray at the audience in order to make them cry - but the film is presented in such an elegant, compelling fashion, that you won't notice any of its flaws until well after the end credits.