A nice movie, but a bit predictable and unoriginal

Rating: 6/10 (14 February 2005)

I found the movie enjoyable since the actors did a very good job and they had very believable chemistry. I also thought that Rachel McAdams did a wonderful job portraying Allie. Unfortunately I felt that the movie was a bit predictable and plagued with little production problems. I (unfortunately) am one of those movie watchers that loses touch with a movie when I see errors in it or am easily able to guess what's going on.
My three biggest complaints with the movie were it's predictability, minor technical errors and odd casting. Predictability:
My first gripe arose at the very beginning of the movie when the unnamed old man arrives to read a story to the also unnamed elderly woman. I was IMMEDIATELY able to guess that she had memory problems and that he was going to be reading a story about their lives together. I don't know exactly why I was able predict this (I think it was a combination of various things), but I assume many people were able to get the same impression right away. Again the movie continued to be predictable when Noah's friend mentions that Allie's father is extremely wealthy... how obvious was it that her parents weren't going to accept a poor lumber worker into their family. This 'wrong side of the tracks' storyline is so cliché that it has its own expression... 'wrong side of the tracks' (see "Love Story", "Cocktail", "Pretty In Pink", "Say Anything", etc.) In one scene some rich family friends ask Noah how much money he makes, at least when the scene was originally shown in Titanic (oops another "wrong side of the tracks" movie) it was believable, in this movie the guy comes right out and asks his wage- does that really happen at a dinner??? In Titanic they were clearly patronizing him, in this movie it just came across as a silly plot device. Finally, how obvious was it that Allie was going to get caught cheating on her fiancé. Oops, she accidentally mentioned that she was going to be staying in the town where Noah lives and the word got back to her mom... what a huge surprise (especially since they make sure that the fiancé repeats the name of the town she is going to be staying in... just to make sure we didn't miss that he caught it). Technical Errors:
The first and most bothersome technical error in this movie is the historical revision of race relations in the south in the 1940s. There was a scene where Noah and his father were singing and dancing outside of his house with a group of black people. Again when Noah's father died there were black people at his funeral. Now I know that not all southerners in the 1940s were racist, but I think it's probably a fair bet to say that you wouldn't see many black people and white people singing together on front porches or standing side by side at funerals. Personally I think it's extremely unfair to African Americans for us to pretend like things were perfectly fair and fine back then. The next problem was when Alli is driving to town after having a fight with Noah, and she almost hits a truck head-on. I love the modern steering wheel cover in the car.
My final issue with the movie was the unusual casting; specifically with peoples' ages. In my opinion Allie's dad looked like he was about 35, the fake gray temples and horrible mustache hardly make him look as old as his wife. In addition James Garner looked nothing like young Ryan Gosling, but I can't completely blame them since Garner adds his name to the films billing. The worst casting was with Alli and Noah's children. I was guessing that Allie and Noah looked about 70-80, and if the movie was in the present day they would be about 80... but their youngest daughter looked about 18 years old! Were Allie and Noah having Kids into their 60s? All in all, this movie was OK. The plot was very basic and predictable, but I have definitely seen much worse. I am also obligated to mention that my girlfriend loved the movie.