Character issues...

Rating: 7/10 (10 February 2006)

I think, for me, this movie can illustrate some of the difficulties in creating a romance drama that is very effective. This movie is a finely crafted and beautiful work of art. The story and the film-making are keen on providing a sense of profound happiness and energy into the concept of love, one that is both healing and outgoing.
However, some various problems arose for me with the exposition of the characters. I was simply not attracted to either of the characters. They got together too quickly, too loudly, and from there I couldn't really feel love for them even though I could feel their love for each other. Does this fall into personal taste, or does this fall into shortcomings of the story? Well let's take a look, for a moment, at how they got together, that scene with the ferris wheel. It was loud, it was out there, and it was pretty obnoxious, honestly. Does it connect with us, the viewers, at a level where Noah's actions are reflections of what we secretly desire to do, to climb and to jump and to yell and to make sure she promises to notice us at all costs? Or is it simply brash and contrived, a character that is so outgoing that he represents anybody who is impulsive, albeit completely honest about his feelings and completely persistent in his emotions? Or Allie, is she honestly someone that guys would fall in love with, the person we can imagine as "The One?" Of course at this point somebody will probably think I'm reading too much into them, or I'm just not accepting the movie for what it is, or anything along that line, but in the nature of film criticism I want to ask, what is the purpose of movies like these? As an entertainment medium, it connects us with the idea of "love", the one, the search for that precise person that the two characters find in each other that loves each other and can love forever, something that is needed especially since the world gets so cynical now.
So why am I just completely not in love with those characters? It's a good movie. What I liked especially were the opening shots and that entire scene involving the swans and the rain, which were indeed very romantic. The story was very touching. I just didn't like the characters. I think the real dilemma is that they had too much dialog. Sometimes they spoke when honestly they should have been a bit quieter; and I'm not talking about the first sex scene. That scene was actually one of the movie's strongest moments, one that was more honest about the anxieties for those two young lovers and the implications of what they were doing. I'm talking about moments in the film where all the characters needed to do was share a look, and instead they shared some dialog and it brought me away from the idea that they were truly connected on a deeper level.
--PolarisDiB