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Back Shelf Beauties
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The Notebook No, I didn't cry. OK, maybe a tear or two (I wasn't feeling completely in touch with my feminine side, I hope I don't have one). James Garner stars as Duke - an elderly man at a retirement home who spends his days reading stories from a tattered notebook to a kindly Alzheimer's patient (Gena Rowlands). The notebook contains a love story between a young, lower class country boy, Noah (Ryan Gosling), and a young, upper class city girl, Alley (Rachel McAdams). One distant summer ago, they fell in love (of course), but circumstance and family kept them apart after a heated love affair (double of course). When the summer is over, she leaves town to go back to her life in the city, but can true love prevail? Is it true love? Why is the story so important to Duke and this elderly lady? The Notebook is trying so hard to make us cry, I was left to wonder if that was more important than the story. It's an interesting and emotional movie, but a simple one that relies on clichés to fill in the holes. Often sacrificing substance for a few, hopefully memorable moments, writer Jeremy Leven (based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks) and director Nick Cassavetes don't bring a great deal of depth to The Notebook. They go through the motions to get to these "special moments" that will look good in the commercials and rudimentarily tell the story, but don't always have the kind of impact and power they should. It feels too manufactured without enough story and character development to back it all up or get us intellectually involved. Without enough meaningful dialogue, the movie feels like it is rushing from crying scene to crying scene without drawing us in. However, the cast saves The Notebook. Garner and Rowlands (the director's Mom) are great! They make the move sing with an easygoing manner that captivates the audience in a climax that rips at your heart due to their ability to build to this moment throughout the movie. Garner is wonderfully moving with poetic narration so good I wish I had written it instead of Sparks and Leven, while Rowlands knows how to pull at your heart strings as she portrays a woman with Alzheimer's who sometimes knows what is going on, and seems lost at others. Rowlands does this with a subtlety that gets to you as much as it gets to Garner's character, who is struggling to enjoy those moments when she is all there. McAdams is engaging as Allie, and could have done much better with the necessary background material and a male lead who wasn't as monotone, lifeless and boring as Gosling. Cassevetes allows the movie to go on two scenes too long, and I had a better ending than Sparks and Leven. Instead of dragging it out to a very obvious ending, I would have gone in a different direction (send me an e-mail after you see the movie and let me know what you think). The Notebook barely gets a passing grade. 2 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2004 - WaffleMovies.com
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