Director:
Nick Cassavetes
Starring:
Ryan Gosling
Rachel McAdams
Gena Rowlands
James Garner
Joan Allen
James Marsden
Release: 25 Jun. 04
IMDb
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The Notebook
BY: DAVID PERRY
Coming just as the country finishes its weeks-long Ronald
Reagan love-fest, New Line has evidently decided it’s about time the country
has a good, old-fashioned weepy to make their lightheartedness return.
Formed as a return to Steel Magnolias-style melodrama in a Nicholas Sparks
premise, The Notebook offers what could be the least sincere assertion made
by a film since The Birth of a Nation: evidently Nancy Reagan could have
helped demystify her husband’s memories if only she had kept reading his
autobiography to him.
Regardless of its retrogressive denial of stem cell research, The Notebook
is still a poorly plotted romance set against bombast that only makes the
star-crossed lovers seem plaintively counterfeit. It’s third-grade level
storytelling has these characters go through the cycles of a rich v. poor
love triangle that’s been done superiorly dozens of times. This is
especially seen in the inability of the young actors to convince anyone in
the audience that their love is really worth the time and impatience they
expend while playing coy.
With dialogue that seems more parody than earnest, The Notebook hits all the
wrong marks. It’s compendium of clichés feel almost relaxing by the end --
if director Nick Cassavetes (continuing his attempts to piss away his inborn
blessings, including Gena Rowland’s willingness to appear in whatever her
son does) had rocked the boat, the film might have had critics wondering if
their early appraisal of John Cassavetes’ son was correct. But no, we can
all take solace in knowing that son Nick is just the kind of hack his father
contrasted.
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