Beginning for Nicholas Sparks

Rating: 7/10 (24 February 2011)

Sometimes I like to watch a romantic film by myself which is one of my guilty pleasure and "The Notebook" is basically the epitome of a romance movie. I first saw it I thought it was okay but isn't anything that special, after a second viewing I can tell this is a heartfelt movie. Which maybe sort of brings homage to the movies back in the old days where young teens or couples go to watch a romantic movie. On the downside this film is formulaic and goes in a pretty narrow direction. Sometimes it feels like it's moving along too slowly and the development of the relationships seem a tad bit too quick, with some more development in some areas would have made the plot movie more in a fluid manner. The dialogue is a bit too cheesy at times and the story when it comes to the love aspect of it, isn't all that original...Even when this movie first came out. It's just the character direction could have been more explored, it seemed like the some scenes got cut out because of the length of the film. Even if Noah is a bit of a awkward name Ryan Gosling played this role really well and Rachel McAdams did a good enough job of acting like a girl during the time period the movie takes place. Although it's a mix of her true personality into it as well, although some part of the movie where she was playing a 17 yr old I found ridiculous. And there were few scenes that somewhat tugged on my heartstrings while watching it, although it was probably because of the music and the atmosphere of the scenes. The poor guy falling for a rich girl has been done before numerous times, this film has it's own charm to some degree. And like I said it isn't a clever romance movie and generic at times but it's a touching and heartfelt love story. If your somewhat like to watch romantic movies or movie for couple's, this movie is worth seeing. I also say the scene with one of Noah's quote "Would you stop thinking about what everyone wants? Stop thinking about what I want, what he wants, what your parents want. What do YOU want? What do you WANT?" and other dialogues during that scene left a big impact. It was simply some very good dialogue in a romance film. Which is why I am giving this movie a higher score than I thought I would over a hour and thirty minutes into it. It's a simple love story but well done.
7.8/10