a good story, well told

Rating: 10/10 (21 March 2006)

The Notebook seemed like a boring movie when I read the summary on the back of it, but after seeing it I must admit that the summary was the best lie ever told. The Notebook is a beautiful story of love and hope through the ages, and the contents of it peels of in different beautifully told layers until you understand the core of it, and then it turns so sad, so gruesome and so hopeless and spite of all this sadness the true story stands stronger and more powerful than before.
The movie begins at a home for the elderly where an old man reads from a notebook to an old woman at the home. It's in present day, South Carolina and as the man tells the story we're taken back to the 40's in a fictional town of Seabrook where Noah meets Allie at a fair and he falls head over heels for her. They begin a journey of love and differences that ends quite abruptly at summer's end, but still lasts for years. The setting tells nothing of the political issues in the 40's US south but it's not supposed to either, I think. It's a story of love between two people from two very different backgrounds. The photography is amazing and the detail of the time and place is astounding, you do feel like you've been tossed 60 years back in time, but the real deal is the chemistry between Noah and Allie - that's what makes this move tick and is enhanced by James Garner's and Gena Rowlands's performances.
Beautiful story, beautiful setting and extremely much worth seeing - over and over again. It makes an even greater impact the second time around when you have all the answers and new realizations appear.
SPOILERS: . . . . When you watch the movie you realize after a while that the old man, Mr Calhoun really is Noah and the woman he's reading to is Allie who suffers from Alzheimers disease. That alone is heartbreaking. He has loved her all his life and is now retelling the story of themselves and she doesn't recognize it, she doesn't even recognize her own family that comes to visit them. The final blow that really tore through my heart is the realization that SHE wrote the notebook for Noah to read to her so that she might remember something Their story takes place in the run down mansion that Noah vowed to rebuild for Allie, as well. The movie makes me hope that there are men out there like Noah, with uncanny patience and perseverance to love another no matter what the circumstances. Another fine symbol is the birds in the movie. It begins with birds flying towards the house, they come back when Allie wants to be a bird in her next life to which Noah replies "If you're a bird, I'm a bird.". He remembers this and later - when they meet again after seven years - takes her to a magical place to where swans and ducks come. Allie asks if the ducks stay there and Noah says no, they go back to where they came from - a semi-harsh analogy to Allie when she left that summer, long ago. Finally the birds return as the credits start to roll when we leave the mansion and a flock of geese take flight across the waters and reminds us of Allie's wish to become a bird in her next life.