Recent PostsThe Notebook
Directed by
Nick Cassavetes
Produced by
Lynn Harris
Mark Johnson
Written by
Nicholas Sparks (novel)
Jan Sardi
Jeremy Leven
Starring
Ryan Gosling
Rachel McAdams
James Garner
Gena Rowlands
James Marsden
Joan Allen
Sam Shepard
David Thornton
Music by
Aaron Zigman
Cinematography
Robert Fraisse
Editing by
Alan Heim
Distributed by
New Line Cinema
Release date(s)
June 25, 2004
Running time
123 min.
Budget
$30,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue
$115,603,229
IMDb profile
The Notebook is a 2004 romance film directed by Nick Cassavetes based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks.
Contents
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Synopsis
Set in a modern day nursing home, an elderly man named Noah, but called “Duke”, begins to read a love story from his notebook about Allie and Noah, and Noah’s undying love for his wife Allie who suffers from senile dementia. Before her disease intensified, Allie wrote their love story down in a notebook. She gave it to him with instructions to read it to her on days she couldn’t remember, promising that her memory would come back as Noah read her their love story.
The film/book begins in June 6, 1940. Seventeen-year-old Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams), the only child of a rich plantation owner, and her friend, Sara (Heather Wahlquist), are spending the evening at a local carnival in Seabrook Island, South Carolina. This is where Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling), a country boy who is with his friend, Finn (Kevin Connolly), first sees Allie. Noah is immediately smitten with Allie and he continuously asks her out on dates, only to be playfully rejected. Noah hangs off a Ferris wheel which Allie is riding, and tells Allie that he will let go if she doesn’t accept. To get even, Allie unbuckles Noah’s belt, leaving him hanging from the Ferris wheel in his underwear and t-shirt. Soon, they wind up spending the evening with each other while going to a late night show with Finn and Sara. On a midnight walk through an empty Seabrook, Noah learns of how regimented Allie’s life is with her daily schedules and activities. Yet he sees a deeper side in her, a side yearning to be free and he likes that. The first featuring of “I’ll Be Seeing You” is played as they dance in the street.
Noah and Allie spend an idyllic summer together. Allie lives with her parents, John and Anne Hamilton, who are staying in Seabrook only for the summer. Allie’s father, a Southern millionaire, appears to be okay with Allie and Noah’s relationship, chuckling as Allie returns late home one night, merely laughing “Oh Boy!” as the two regretfully part for the night outside Allie’s house. Noah lives only with his father, Frank Calhoun. Frank is welcoming to Allie and invites her to the house regularly for dances and pancakes. Allie’s mother is not so approving. One night, a week before Allie is to leave, Allie and Noah go up to an abandoned house called The Windsor Plantation. Noah tells her that he hopes to buy the house, and Allie makes him promise the house would be white, with blue shutters, a walk around porch, and a room that overlooks the creek so she could paint. This is the place where Allie and Noah prepare to make love for the first time. A nervous Allie keeps interrupting Noah as he kisses her and when the moment seems finally right, they are interrupted by Finn who tells them Allie’s parents have every cop out looking for her. Upon return to the house, Allie’s parents ban her from seeing Noah, Allie fights with Noah outside and the two decide to break up. Allie immediately regrets the decision but Noah drives away. The next morning, Allie’s mother reveals that they’re going home that morning instead of next week. Allie frantically tries to find Noah, but is forced to leave without saying good-bye. The Hamiltons then send Allie to New York, where she begins attending Sarah Lawrence College. Noah, devastated to be separated from Allie, writes her one letter a day for a year, only to get no reply because Allie’s mother keeps the letters from her. They have no choice than to move on with their lives, and Allie continues to attend school, while Noah and Finn enlist to fight in World War II, ending up in Europe under General Patton. Finn is killed in battle.
Meanwhile, Allie becomes a nurse for wounded soldiers. There, she meets the wealthy Lon Hammond Jr. Allie spends time with him and the two eventually become engaged, to the joy of Allie’s parents. Their wedding will be the local society event of the year. Lon Jr., although a well-connected young lawyer, is too stiff and absorbed in his work to fully meet Allie’s emotional needs.
While trying on her wedding dress, Allie is startled to read about Noah completing the house in the style section of a Raleigh newspaper. She faints. She tells Lon that she yearns to paint pictures again and that she needs to get away for awhile. She visits Noah in Seabrook and he invites her to dinner. During dinner Allie tells Noah that she is now engaged. Noah is startled by the discovery and questions if Allie’s future husband is a good man. She reassures Noah that he is. Later in the evening, Noah invites Allie to come back. The next morning, Allie arrives and Noah surprises her by taking her rowing on a nearby lake, where they row amidst hundreds of white swans floating by. Soon, they both begin to reminisce about their summer together. It starts to rain, and Noah rows to shore. Their conversation intensifies and Allie asks Noah “Why didn’t you write me? Why? It wasn’t over for me; I waited seven years for you. But, now it’s too late.” Noah reveals to Allie that he did. “I wrote you 365 letters. I wrote you every day for a year.” It becomes obviously clear that the two are still in love with each other. After the exchange of words, they share a passionate kiss. Throughout the night, they make love. In the midst of the next afternoon, Allie’s mother shows up on Noah’s doorstep. Her mother tells Allie there was a time in her life, while Allie may have not known, but she can relate to Allie’s present situation. Allie’s mother helps her understand how how she handled the situation, and tells Allie has a difficult decision to make. When her mother drives Allie back to Noah’s house, she hands her the bundle of 365 letters that Noah wrote to her that summer. Noah is already waiting for Allie’s return on the front porch. Noah asks Allie what her decision is. Allie is confused and confesses that she doesn’t know. Noah is hurt and states that she wants security so that is why she is going to go back to her fiancé. They are arguing and Allie starts to head for her car. Angrily, Allie yells “Stay with you? What for? Look at us, we’re already fightin’.” Noah replies “Well that’s what we do, we fight… You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I’m not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you’re back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing.” Confused as ever, Allie drives off.
Allie confesses everything that has happened to her to Lon. He tries to convince her that he’s the guy for her, but he doesn’t want to be with her if she doesn’t feel the same way. The next scene shows Noah coming out of the house and Allie getting out of the car with her luggage.
The film goes back to the elderly couple, and Allie asks Duke who Allie chose. She realizes the answer herself, and the scene, briefly, goes again to years earlier, where Allie goes back to Noah again, and they both embrace in reunion. Allie suddenly remembers her past and she and Noah joyfully spend a brief intimate time together, Allie then suffers a “sundown” (described in a deleted scene when Allie has no recognition of anything or anyone around her) and panics. She has to be sedated by the attending physician. This proves to be too difficult for Noah to watch and he breaks down. The next morning, Noah is found unconscious in bed (it is revealed in a deleted scene that he suffered a heart attack after the incident with Allie, the strain proving too much for a man with an already weakened heart) and he is rushed to the hospital. He later is returned to the nursing home’s intensive care ward. He goes to Allie’s room later that night, and Allie remembers again. They talk, and Allie asks him if he thinks their love could take them away together, to which Noah replies, “I think our love can do anything we want it to.” The nurse then finds them in bed together the next morning, having died peacefully in one another’s arms.
Critical reception
The film received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregate at Rotten Tomatoes reported that 51% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 142 reviews.
The film was far more popular with women than with men. On the IMDb Women’s Top 50 Films it is #27 , but men only scored it 7.4/10, far off the equivalent list.
Box office performance
The film was released June 25, 2004 in the United States and Canada and grossed $13.4 million in 2,303 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #4 at the box office.
References
- ^ The Notebook – Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures – Rotten Tomatoes. Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
- ^ Notebook, The (2004): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
- ^ The Notebook (2004) – Weekend Box Office Results. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
- ^ The Notebook (2004). Box Office Mojo. Retrieved on 2008-02-05.
External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
The Notebook (film)
- The Notebook at the Internet Movie Database
- The Notebook at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Notebook at Metacritic
- The Notebook at Box Office Mojo
- The Notebook at Allmovie
- Romance Analysis in The Notebook
- James Garner interview for The Notebook
- James Garner Interview on the Charlie Rose Show
- James Garner interview at Archive of American Television
Retrieved from “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Notebook_%28film%29”
Categories: Films set in the 1940s | 2004 films | Films shot in Canada | Romantic period films | Coming-of-age films | Drama films | Romance films | Films based on romance books | Films directed by Nick Cassavetes