Cassavetes isn't much of a director and he never settles on a mood, which he seems intent on ruining with hiccups of goofiness. But there's an underlying humanity to his scenes, a sense that movies are made by people for other people.
The Notebook (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:146
Fresh:76
Rotten:70
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: Despite some touching performances, The Notebook is still a syrupy tearjerker.
Theatrical Release:25-06-2004
Synopsis: A young woman comes to the coastal town of Seabrook, North Carolina in the 1940's to spend the summer with her family. Still in her teens, Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) meets local boy Noah... A young woman comes to the coastal town of Seabrook, North Carolina in the 1940's to spend the summer with her family. Still in her teens, Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) meets local boy Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) at a Carnival. On the spot, Noah senses that he and Allie are meant to be together. Though she is a wealthy debutante and he a mill worker, over the course of one passionate and carefree summer in the South, the two fall deeply in love. Circumstances - and the sudden outbreak of World War II - drive them apart, but both continue to be haunted by memories of each other. When Noah returns home from the war years later, Allie is irrevocably gone from his life, but not from his heart. Though Noah doesn't yet know it, Allie has come back to Seabrook, where they first fell in love. But now Allie is engaged to marry Lon (James Marsden), a wealthy soldier she met while volunteering in a GI hospital. Decades later, a man (James Garner) reads from a faded notebook to a woman (Gena Rowlands) he regularly visits at her nursing home. Though her memory has faded, she becomes caught up in the fiery story of Allie and Noah - and for a few moments, she is able to relive the passionate, turbulent time when they swore they'd be together always. New Line Cinema presents The Notebook, a story of lost chances, growing up and the power of enduring love. A Gran Via Production, the film is directed by Nick Cassavetes from a screenplay by Jeremy Leven, adaptation by Jan Sardi, based on the best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks. Academy Award winner Mark Johnson (Rain Man) and Lynn Harris are the producers. The executive producers are Toby Emmerich and Avram Butch Kaplan. The film stars Ryan Gosling (The Believer), Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls), Academy Award nominees James Garner (Murphy's Romance, TV's "Eight Simple Rules") and Gena Rowlands (Gloria, A Woman Under the Influence), James Marsden (X-Men series) and Kevin Connolly (John Q.), with Academy Award nominees Sam Shepard (The Right Stuff, Black Hawk Down) and Joan Allen (The Contender, Nixon). The creative behind-the-scenes team is led by director of photography Robert Fraisse AFC (Enemy at the Gates, Vatel), editor Alan Heim A.C.E. (American History X, All That Jazz), production designer Sarah Knowles and costume designer Karyn Wagner (The Lone Ranger, The Salton Sea, The Majestic). Aaron Zigman (John Q., Fighting For Care) composed the score. Casting is by Matthew Barry, C.S.A. and Nancy Green-Keyes, C.S.A. New Line Cinema will release The Notebook (rated PG-13 by the M.P.A.A. for "some sexuality") nationwide on June 25th, 2004. [More]
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Sam Shepard, Joan Allen, James Marsden
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Screenwriter: Jeremy Leven, Jan Sardi
Producer: Mark Johnson, Lynn Harris
Composer: Aaron Zigman
Studio: New Line Cinema
Reviews for The Notebook
who knew the skinhead of The Believer would have such romantic chemistry with the lead Mean Girl?
Sweet and sentimental with a feel for the period in which the romance takes place.
You can't write off The Notebook as just another tearjerker because the characters are brought to life in such elegant fashion.
Against your better judgment, you root for the pair to beat the odds against them.
If you found The Bridges of Madison County too demanding, if you like your romance with an extra helping of syrup, then your movie has arrived.
If there is a more cringe-inducing, badly made and excruciating movie released this year, it would have to not only star the Olsen twins, but be written and directed by them as well.
Garner is especially moving in his tender devotion to this hopeless case, and McAdams gives the kind of vivid, unfettered performance that marks the ascendance of a star.
Garner has a supporting role in The Notebook, but he's such a pleasure to watch that he elevates the quality of the entire film.
It's a familiar theme, the young, hormone-crazed, star-crossed lovers, and it wouldn't be nearly so entertaining were it not for the considerable appeal of Gosling and McAdams, who forge a palpable chemistry.
If its performers do not always triumph over their material, it's a struggle that they make worth watching.
If it were a sandwich, it would be two slices of bread without filling. If it were a bridge, it would be two anchorages without a suspension in between. Nice anchorages, though.
It will have many viewers bucketing tears until they are as dehydrated as Egyptian mummies.
Cassavetes's directing style is slow and stilted ... indicating yet again that his notion of moviemaking is the opposite of everything his father, the great John Cassavetes, stood for.
This film vaults past our defenses. We can see the characters falling and staying in love, feel the reasons.
Cassavettes wants this to be a love letter to Rowlands, his mother. She is luminous, and we believe she could inspire great love. Too bad it's not in a great movie.
Latest News for The Notebook
January 23, 2008:
Ryan Gosling Starring in Jack Ryan Franchise Reboot?
Romantics swooned over him in The Notebook, and critics loved his turn as the doll-toting lead character in last year's Lars and the Real Girl -- and if the latest rumors are... More...
January 02, 2008:
First Shots of Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams in The Time Traveler's Wife
The first stills from Robert Schwentke's adaptation of The Time Traveler's Wife have surfaced online! More...
October 25, 2007:
Dakota Fanning and Elle Fanning Teaming Up for My Sister's Keeper
They aren't even in high school yet, but the Fanning sisters are already grizzled Hollywood veterans -- and now they're teaming up onscreen for the first time. More...
June 28, 2007:
Ryan Gosling Signs On to Peter Jackson's "Lovely Bones"
The 27-year-old actor will be playing the husband to 36-year-old Rachel Weisz. They'll be playing the parents of a (dead) 14-year-old girl in the Peter Jackson pic. More...
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