Sentimental love story works because of it's actors

Rating: 7/10 (30 November 2004)

I bash Hollywood all the time as they continually churn out formula films over and over again but every once in a while they make a sweet love story that for some reason or another works well. This clearly works and I think it's due to the performances of it's actors that obviously had good faith in the material. Story starts out in a nursing home where we see Noah "Duke" Calhoun (James Garner) who everyday reads to his wife Allie (Gena Rowlands) from his notebook about the story of how they met and fell in love. Allie is suffering from Alzheimer's and doesn't know that the story that is being read to her is actually her life but Duke hopes that it will start a spark where she will briefly remember their great romance.
*****SPOILER ALERT*****
Duke reads their story as it starts in the 1940's in North Carolina when as a young man (Ryan Gosling) he works in the saw mill but one night he meets a very pretty rich girl (Rachel McAdams) and begs her to go out with him. She does and they start dating until they both eventually fall head over heels in love but Allie's mother Anne (Joan Allen) wants her daughter to end her romance as she deems him lower class. Allie goes to school and doesn't hear from Noah but then the war breaks out and it takes a few years before they meet up again. By this time she's engaged but with their meeting they restart their torrid romance and must now ponder whether to get married or stay for good with Noah.
This film is directed by Nick Cassavetes who is slowly learning how to be as terrific a director that his father was and with each film project he seems to be choosing material that is vastly different from each other. Here he tackles a sweet and sentimental love story and he does the right thing by staying close to the novel by Nicholas Sparks and assembling a great cast with his own mother in a pivotal role. Garner hasn't been in a role this good in eons and he's nothing short of moving here and I think this is the first time that he's actually cried in a performance. I was also deeply impressed by McAdams who I feel is a real emerging star and I do hope other well written roles come her way because she shows that she's ready. This film takes it's time telling it's story and it does tend to wander at certain points but this is a genuinely sweet and romantic film that is made with real care by it's young director and it's acted extremely well by the talented cast.