A beautiful, evocative and textured picture.

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2009)

We are in the present day and in the company of a gentleman named Duke. On a daily basis he visits Allie who has sadly gone senile, regaling her with a romantic tale from a well worn notebook.
I'm choosing not to write too much on this smashing romantic film because personally I feel that first time viewers are better served not knowing too much about it. It's not a cop out or any form of laziness, it's that the impact of the piece will be far heightened without prior knowledge of the films basic plot structures. What I will write, though, is that the film is adapted by Jeremy Leven and Jan Sardi from the hugely popular novel by Nicholas Sparks, it's unashamedly sentimental and its intention is to pull your heart strings and to tap those tear ducts.
Very well acted by Ryan Gosling, Rachael McAdams {superb in fact}, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Joan Allen and Sam Shepard, gorgeously photographed by Robert Fraisse {I swear a swan lake sequence is heavenly in its execution}, and directed with almost an uncanny awareness of the required pace by Nick Cassavetes, technically the picture stands tall and proud. Really though, it's the story {and the story within the story} that lifts it to the higher echelons of romantic films past and present, I'm not doubting that you need to be in the right frame of mind for such a sentimental picture, but for anyone who has been in love, is in love, or just wants to find love, The Notebook is an essential viewing, so don't let the naysayers tell you any different. 9/10