Bittersweet old-time Hollywood melodrama with fine acting all-around

Rating: Null/10 (30 June 2004)

THE NOTEBOOK (2004) **1/2 Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, James Marsden, Sam Shepard, David Thornton, Joan Allen. Bittersweet romantic drama that see-saws between the present with Garner and Rowlands as an at-twilight couple ravaged by Alzheimer's afflicting their relationship and the past with Gosling and McAdams as their younger versions courting one another told in flashback and the narrative device of the eponymous journal that leads to some heart-warming and cornball old-time Hollywood style melodrama that ultimately peters out by the film's idealistic outcome. Based on Nicholas Sparks' bestseller and directed with maturity by Nick Cassavetes (Gena's son).