Like a poorly made "Hallmark Hall of Fame" special

Rating: 2/10 (18 June 2005)

I think most of the folks who rated this movie between 1 and 3 stars have pretty much nailed the reasons why this film was bad-to-mediocre.
Ryan Gosling looked and sounded like he was straight out of L.A. Hands down the worst casting in the movie. Gosling seemed like he *might* be able to act in a movie with a title like, say, "Hey, Dude, Wha's Up", but that's about it. The guy has the energy of a turnip. At one point, I thought he might possibly be a step away from being stoned.
Gosling's character's on screen relationship with Rachel McAdams appeared to be relatively chemistry-free. But that might also have been due to the lame script. Some of the lines were hard to take seriously. Still, it would have been nice if Gosling, in particular, had tried.
The movie reminded of a Hallmark Hall of Fame production, but with poorer production values. And the film seemed to be about the '30s and '40s as imagined by someone contemporary. Hence, there is no hesitancy about a woman sleeping with someone she barely knows (and to whom she is not married), blacks and whites cheerfully intermingle everywhere--this contemporization of a much earlier era was distracting.
Also, I never understood why Allie falls for Noah in the first place. Noah is an immature doof--endangering himself and others on the ferris wheel, talking to Allie later on like a would-be stalker, and then, when they do go out, lying in the middle of the street. And when Allie tells Noah she doesn't want to lie in the middle of the intersection, Noah pulls the manipulative old, "Your problem is you just don't let your self have any fun."
Maybe her problem, Noah, is that she has common sense and you don't?
According to the young lovers, all they do is fight. And they have nothing in common. But hey, as the movie shows us, they're physically attracted to each other. And that is enough to produce a great and enduring love.
Now there's a wonderful message to send the teenage girls who must be watching this film.
And finally, the movie shows Allie's fiancé, Lon, as a wonderful guy. Mature, hard-working, with a string of virtues already mentioned by another IMDb poster. And Allie is in love with him. I cannot fathom why she would be more attracted to Noah, with whom she argues and has nothing in common (except sexual attraction, evidently).
I did think James Garner did a decent job with the script he was given. But it was all too little too late.