The Notebook
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| The Notebook | |
|---|---|
 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Nick Cassavetes |
| Produced by | Lynn Harris Mark Johnson |
| Written by | Nicholas Sparks (novel) Jan Sardi Jeremy Leven |
| Starring | Rachel McAdams Ryan Gosling James Garner Gena Rowlands James Marsden Joan Allen 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. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $30,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
The Notebook is a film based on a romantic novel by Nicholas Sparks. It became a "sleeper hit" in summer 2003 and put Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling on the map in Hollywood as "up-and-comers."
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[edit] Film version
The film version was released June 25, 2004. It starred Ryan Gosling,James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Sam Shepard, Joan Allen and James Marsden. It was directed by Rowlands's real-life son, Nick Cassavetes.
[edit] Plot
Tagline: Behind every great love is a great story.
Set in a modern day nursing home, an elderly man named Noah, but called "Duke" (James Garner), begins to read a love story from his notebook, to an elderly woman named Allie, who suffers from Alzheimer's, and who is also really his wife. Before, when the illness had not yet intensified, Allie wrote her love story that she shared with Noah in a notebook, gave it to him, and asked that he read it to her, promising that she will remember when he does.
The year then goes back to 1940, at a carnival. Noah (Ryan Gosling), a country boy who is with his friend Fin (Kevin Connolly), first sees Allie (Rachel McAdams), a seventeen-year-old girl from a wealthy family, who is with her friend Sara (Heather Wahlquist). Noah is immediately smitten with Allie, and continuously asks her out on dates, only to be playfully rejected by her, even hanging off the Ferris Wheel showing that he will let go if she didn’t accept. Soon, they wind up with each other while going to a late night show with Fin and Sara. They both spend extra time with each other that night, and quickly fall in love.
Noah and Allie spend an idyllic summer together. Allie lives with her parents, John and Anne Hamilton (David Thornton and Joan Allen), who are staying in Seabrook for only the summer. Noah lives only with his father, Frank Calhoun (Sam Shepard). However, Allie's parents are against the relationship as Noah is not in their social class and quickly send her away to New York, where Allie starts attending university at Sarah Lawrence. Noah, devastated to be separated from his beloved Allie, begins to write one letter a day for a year, only to get no reply as Allie's mother hides the letters away from her daughter. They have no other choice than to move on with their lives, and Allie continues to attend university, while Noah and Fin enlist for the war (it is later seen that Fin dies in the war). For a short time, Allie becomes a nurse for the wounded soldiers. There she meets Lon Hammond Jr (James Marsden). Allie spends time with him and the two eventually become engaged, to the joy of Allie's parents as Lon is wealthy.
When Noah comes back from fighting in the war, he finds out that his Dad has sold their house and bought Noah's dream house, called "The Windsor Plantation". But before long, Noah's father passes away. When traveling to the city to get a building permit, Noah sees Allie embracing Lon, and then decides to rebuild "The Windsor Plantation" for Allie. He and Allie had visited it in their earlier years and he had promised Allie that he would one day rebuild it. Noah also engages in a brief affair with a widow named Martha Shaw (Jamie Brown).
While trying on her wedding dress, Allie reads about Noah completing the house in a newspaper, and is completely shocked. She decides to visit Noah in Seabrook, and the two spend a bit of time together, talking about what has lately been happening in their lives. Noah invites Allie to see him again the next day, and they both go for a ride in a rowboat. Not long later, Allie confronts Noah and asks him why she had not heard from him for all those years. Noah tells her that he had sent her 365 letters, and the two kiss passionately and make love, knowing that they still have feelings for each other. After a two-day affair, Anne Hamilton comes to see her daughter and learns about what has happened. While going for a drive with her daughter, Anne explains to Allie how she, before marrying John, had also fallen in love with a man who was not in her social class. She takes Allie back to the house, and tells her daughter she hopes that she makes the right choice. Noah and Allie talk and get into a brief argument, where Noah continuously asks her what she really wants in life. Allie then leaves the heartbroken Noah and returns to the inn where she tells Lon what happened with Noah.
The film then goes back to the elderly couple, and Allie asks Duke who Allie chose. She realises 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 brief yet intimate time together, before Allie forgets again. The next morning, Noah is found unconscious in bed and is rushed to hospital, but is later returned to the nursing home. He walks into Allie's bedroom that night, and Allie remembers again. They talk, and Allie asks him if he thinks that their love could take them away together, to which Noah replies, "I think our love can do anything we want it to." They sleep holding on to each other, and the next morning, the nurse finds that Noah and Allie had passed away together.
[edit] Differences from novel
- Noah had a serious girlfriend after Allie who was very similar to the Martha character.
- In the film, Allie's last name is Hamilton, while in the book it is Nelson.
- In the book, Allie's hair is described as being blonde, while in the film it is red. Rachel McAdams said in a magazine interview that she and director Nick Cassavetes thought her hair should be red, to match her fiery personality.
- Noah's story is continued in the novel "The Wedding", in which we learn that only Allie has died.
- The novel is set in the real town of New Bern, North Carolina. The movie takes place in Seabrook Island, South Carolina.
[edit] Trivia
- Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams are both from London, Ontario, Canada
- Ryan Gosling built the kitchen table featured in the movie in preparation for his role as Noah in the film.
- Rachel McAdams took etiquette lessons in preparation for her role as Allie in the film.
- Ryan Gosling wore brown eye contacts because James Garner has brown eyes, and Gosling's are naturally blue.
- Rachel McAdams beat many people for the role of Allie, including Britney Spears.
- The term "Notebooked" has been used by the TV series One Tree Hill. It is used to describe a girl who makes a boy sad and emotional from watching the film. In a sentence this word is used: "I notebooked him."
- McAdams and Gosling won the "Best Kiss" category in the 2005 MTV Movie Awards for their scene in the film.
- The Notebook was mentioned in the December 2005 Saturday Night Live sketch Lazy Sunday.
- The Notebook is currently the number one movie listed on student profiles on Facebook.[citation needed]
- In the alternate scene it is shown that the nursing home that Allie and Noah had residence in was in fact not the house he renovated, as he offered it to his children. One could get confused as it was on the same lake.
- In the film Red Eye, Rachel McAdams' character attends her grandmother's funeral, and explains to another character that she lived to an old age with the help of "a guy named Duke," a possible homage to this film.
- Most images now of Noah and Allie kissing have Noah's beard photo sketched out due to the lack of popularity with the beard.
- In the special features section of the DVD, it is said that Reese Witherspoon tried out for the part of Allie. She can instead be seen as the lady at the wedding dress fitting that says that Lon won't be able to keep his eyes or his hands off of Allie.
- The song that is attributed to the couple throughout the movie is I'll Be Seeing You.
[edit] External links
- The Notebook at the Internet Movie Database
- The Notebook-Fansite
- James Garner interview for The Notebook
