The Notebook review

Number 346 on the top 1000 films of all time is the romantic drama: The Notebook.

Duke (James Garner) is a resident at a care home. He is friends with an elderly woman (Gena Rowlands) who is suffering from dementia. To comfort her, Duke reads her a story from a notebook. The story is about the romance between Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams,) a young couple who fell in love in 1940's South Carolina.

As a rule, I am generally not a fan of romance films. I find them slow and saccharine. The Notebook was no exception. Part of that was down to the characters of Noah and Allie. This is, of course, no comment on Gosling and McAdams' acting abilities. I've seen Rachel McAdams in True Detective as the tough-as-nails police detective 'Antigone Bezzerides.' She was far more of an interesting character than Allie who was generic. There was no depth to her character other than being a Southern belle. It was a simple portrayal of a simple character and there wasn't a lot McAdams could do to change that.

Initially Allie spurns Noah's advances, but is eventually won over by his roguish charm. However, her snooty high-class family don't approve of Noah's working-class roots and forbid her from seeing him. When all seems lost, the power of love brings them back together. Noah was also generic. He's your run-of-the-mill cheeky chappy who holds a torch after his heart is broken. It's a storyline I've seen before and it wasn't any different here.

What I found much more interesting was the framing story. This actually had some conflict I was invested in. I was interesting in learning the answers to the questions they were raising. Who was Duke? Who was the woman he was reading to? What was wrong with her? Why was Duke reading to her? Why was he reading that particular story? These questions all culminate in a genuinely tragic way that did tug at my heartstrings. I'll leave you to find out the answers to these questions for yourself. But this framing narrative was far more intimate and stripped back compared to the grandiose 'Noah and Allie' love story, which is why I preferred it.

While the Notebook might be considered one of the best romances of all time, it was not for me.