Film Review
The Notebook
Dir. Nick CassavetesScr. Nicholas Sparks (Novel); Jan Sardi (Adaptation)
Ryan Gosling
Rachel McAdams
James Garner
Gena Rowlands
Official Site - www.thenotebookmovie.com
Memory loss has been a much-used device in Hollywood. Hitchcock used it in Spellbound, the Manchurian Candidate explored both memory loss and brainwashing and in more recent times we have seen a slew of films that explore amnesia in one form or another; Memento, Gothika, Paycheck, The Butterlfy Effect, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. To this genre we add a movie about memory loss of another kind: Alzheimer's.
Drawn from the hugely successful novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook is a three-hanky tear-jerker of the old-school kind, playing straight for the heart-strings without reservation and going for every emotional turn it can take. And yet, in spite of it's genre-predictability the film works. It is a tender and loving exploration of how story can help us to reconnect. What really makes it work are the actors.
The film is about love between two unlikely people. One, the girl, played with depth and brilliance by Rachel McAdams, is rich and groomed for upward mobility, holidaying in her familiy's summer mansion--she meets and falls in love with a local poor-boy (Ryan Gosling)--love ensues-then disapproving parents--World War II and all the drama of lost and unrequited love.
The story is told backwards by the couple in old-age (James Garner and Gena Rowlands)--Gena Rowlands is locked up in the troubling world of Alzheimer's and her husband is re-telling the story of their love in an effort to reconnect with his wife and help her find some way to get out of the brain troubles. Of course, the doctors say it won't work but it does. The Notebook is sentimental, but it is also very sweet and tender and well-acted.
Alzheimer's disease is the death of the self while the body lives on. It is a tragic condition in which the sufferers lose most of the qualities which we associate with humanness. The Notebook addresses these issues through the power of conquering, triumphant love. There is not much hope for Alzheimer's patients, this film advances the idea that love can offer glimpses of hope and in this case argues that a glimpse is enough.
Drawn from the hugely successful novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook is a three-hanky tear-jerker of the old-school kind, playing straight for the heart-strings without reservation and going for every emotional turn it can take. And yet, in spite of it's genre-predictability the film works. It is a tender and loving exploration of how story can help us to reconnect. What really makes it work are the actors.
The film is about love between two unlikely people. One, the girl, played with depth and brilliance by Rachel McAdams, is rich and groomed for upward mobility, holidaying in her familiy's summer mansion--she meets and falls in love with a local poor-boy (Ryan Gosling)--love ensues-then disapproving parents--World War II and all the drama of lost and unrequited love.
The story is told backwards by the couple in old-age (James Garner and Gena Rowlands)--Gena Rowlands is locked up in the troubling world of Alzheimer's and her husband is re-telling the story of their love in an effort to reconnect with his wife and help her find some way to get out of the brain troubles. Of course, the doctors say it won't work but it does. The Notebook is sentimental, but it is also very sweet and tender and well-acted.
Alzheimer's disease is the death of the self while the body lives on. It is a tragic condition in which the sufferers lose most of the qualities which we associate with humanness. The Notebook addresses these issues through the power of conquering, triumphant love. There is not much hope for Alzheimer's patients, this film advances the idea that love can offer glimpses of hope and in this case argues that a glimpse is enough.