Notebook, The (Blu-ray)

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Note: In the following joint Blu-ray review, both John and Tim comment on the film, with John also writing up the Video, Audio, and Parting Thoughts.

The Film According to John:
Warner/New Line must think they've hit upon a pretty good idea here: the Limited Edition Blu-ray gift box. Apparently, the studio powers that be liked the big box for "Casablanca" so much that they decided to give the same treatment to 2004's "The Notebook." I have no objections. What does concern me, though, is that the studio is not providing a regular Blu-ray edition for those fans who might not want all the bells and whistles of a big set, to say nothing of not wanting to give up the shelf space a big box takes up. At any rate, the box set is no more expensive than a regular release, so except for its size, this Limited Edition does come with some interesting bonuses.

The thing is, "The Notebook" seems an odd choice for Blu-ray release in the first place. It's the kind of romantic weeper that would have made Bette Davis proud and clearly has a female audience in mind. Yet Blu-ray is still a predominantly male niche market. How many males will buy a big BD gift set of "The Notebook" unless they really, really love the movie or unless they intend to give it to a girlfriend or wife? I dunno. I'm sure it would make an ideal Valentine's Day present; it satisfies both the giver and the receiver.

The Wife-O-Meter had never seen the film before, but she had read the best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks and said it made her cry. Right there you've got a built-in fan base, particularly among female readers. However, with a script adapted by Jan Sardi, a screenplay by Jeremy Leven, and direction by Nick Cassavetes, "The Notebook" worked for this male viewer as well. It is definitely, as I say, an unabashed weeper for anyone but those with the most stoney of hearts.

Jim Garner plays an older gentleman living in a nursing home, where he reads the film's story aloud to a fellow patient, played by Gena Rowlands. Her character is suffering from dementia, an impairment of her mental capacities leaving her with a loss of memory. Her doctor says her condition is irreversible, but Garner's character doesn't buy it. He feels he can jog her mind if he reads to her each day.

The story he reads concerns a pair of young people, Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) and Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams), who in 1940, while in their late teens, fall madly in love. But love ain't easy, as all of us who have experienced it can testify. She is from a rich Southern family; he works in a lumber yard and lives with his widowed father (Sam Shepard). It's a typical Romeo and Juliet tale, with Allie's mother (Joan Allen) especially against the young couple's plans to run off together. Can anything stop true love? The mother, behaving like the Wicked Witch of the West, certainly does her best to shut things down.

After pressure from Allie's parents, Noah and Allie's summer fling ends, and the two young people reluctantly go their separate ways. Seven years pass, and Allie has fallen in love again, this time with Lon Hammond, Jr., "handsome, smart, sophisticated, and charming"; the fact that he is also "fabulously wealthy" impresses Allie's mother no end, and Allie and Lon become engaged. Meanwhile, Noah has bought a crumbling old plantation mansion, the scene of his first tryst with Allie, with the intent to renovate it. Somehow, he feels that if he restores the old house, Allie will come back to him.

We get two sets of narratives in the movie: the flashback to the youngsters and their romance and the account of the oldsters and their relationship to one another. Both sets of events are poignant, but it is the actions of the older people that eventually win over our hearts and minds.

The movie makes its intentions clear from the outset. It wants you to go with its emotional romanticism, starting with Aaron Zigman's soft, warmhearted musical score and cinematographer Robert Fraisse's lushly atmospheric photography. To the cynic it will all seem mushy. If you go with it, which I admit I resisted for a while, it will hook you.

Yes, the characters are stereotypes, and the story is predictable in most ways. Yet, it's the movie's saving grace that the characters always remain real, fleshed-out human beings. Even the seemingly one-sided mother and the fiancée turn out to be more dimensional than they first appear. More important, there's a genuine chemistry between Gosling and McAdams, and Garner and Rowlands have never been better.

Straight-out romance movies are rare these days. In the past decade or so, Hollywood has given us precious few, with ones like "The Painted Veil," "Atonement," and "The Bridges of Madison County" among my own personal favorites. Add "The Notebook."

I have the feeling that movie critics who didn't like "The Notebook" are ones who saw the story as simply manipulative and overly sentimental. But that's what romance is about. Love does manipulate people, and love is damned sentimental. What's more, love is the best thing people have going for them. We need more "Notebooks."

John's film rating: 7/10

The Film According to Tim:
You have to admire romance films because it's amazing how many stories can be created around the idea of love. The one thing you can always count on in a love story is that either someone will die, or the loving couple will live happily ever after. There is also the "break-up-in-the-end" scenario, where our lovers go their own separate ways. The one thing I can say about the New Line film, "The Notebook," directed by Nick Cassavetes, is that it manages to touch on all of these elements in a delightful and graceful manor. There is plenty of charm and wit to carry the story, but be prepared for moments that tug at the heart. There's as much pain as there is joy in this love adventure.

At the start of the film, we meet an older woman, Allie Calhoun (Gena Rowlands), living in a retirement hospice. Every day Allie is accompanied by her friend Duke (James Garner), who reads her a story from what is known as "The Notebook." As Duke reads the story to her, the audience is taken back in time, all the way back into the 1940s. It is here that the love story begins, as we meet a very young, spoiled, rich mommy-and-daddy's girl named Allie (Rachel McAdams). There are the obvious clichés to the tale because she is to find and marry a man of wealth. Of course, this brings us to the "Romeo and Juliet" theme as we meet a very poor, lumber mill worker named Noah (Ryan Gosling). Noah is neither subtle nor graceful about making his intentions known for Allie. He simply never gives up until she falls for him. Of course, Allie's mother will not tolerate their love for one another and takes Allie back to New York.

Eventually, Noah goes off to fight in WWII, while Allie finds a new love by the name of Lon Hammond (James Marsden). Within no time, Allie and Lon are engaged to be married. However, once Allie sees a picture in the newspaper of her past lover, Noah, she finds the urge to go see him once more before she ties the knot. As you can imagine, and it's quite obvious, we are headed down the path of the "love triangle." It's kind of ironic how we have the story of a wealthy girl getting ready to marry a wealthy man. Then out of nowhere, she decides to rekindle her affection for Noah. Allie is now forced to choose between the two gentlemen, and this is where the story gets all too familiar. Can anyone say, "Sweet Home Alabama"? And I say that because this movie was filmed in the South, of all places. Nevertheless, "The Notebook" carries out this theme in a far more charming and heartfelt presentation than many other films of its kind.