I know a lot of people found this movie a cliché. Veronika was one of them. Hindi movie goers definitely would. I don’t blame them. It has all the ingredients. The rich-poor divide, the letters that never got delivered (Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam?) and the recent favourite of Indian cinema – Alzheimer’s and the impossible return of the memory (courtesy ‘Black’). However, would you really deny that its a tearjerker?
Directed by Nick Cassavetes, ‘The Notebook,’ starts in a nursing home, where an elderly man named Duke (James Garner), is reading out the love story of Allie and Noah to an elderly woman suffering from dementia. Set in the 1940s, Duke’s story relates how Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams), a rich heiress meets and falls in love with Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling), a country boy in Seabrook Island, South Carolina. They both hope to marry and are about to make love in the house they both dream of living in, when they are torn apart by Allie’s disapproving parents. As the World War starts, Noah enlists in the Army, while Allie becomes a nurse. That’s when she meets the wealthy Lon Hammond Jr. (James Marsden) and decides to marry him. But if you’ve seen enough romances, you know Noah will make a re-entry.
Throughout the movie, we keep coming back to the present and its not hard to guess that the old lady is Allie, who has suffered a dementia and has lost her memory. But who is the old guy?
I would like to get my hands on the novel by Nicholas Sparks on which the movie is based. I wonder how much the movie deviates. Have any of you read it? Do lemme know about it if you have come across it?
I found the movie sparkling with the chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams. Their crazy fights and passionate love scenes got me. Its no surprise they are as hot off screen. I guess they didn’t win the “Best On-Screen Kiss,” award for nothing!
I also got tearful when the old man pleads with the doctor for a chance to bring back his wife’s memory which he does in the end. James Garner is convincing as a concerned, heartbroken but hopeful husband. I was touched by his faith.
Another part of the story I couldn’t ignore was when Allie finds out that her mother gave up her true love in keeping with the norms of the society, and spent many days wondering how her life would have been if she had listened to her heart.
Still not convinced? Okay, you are entitled to any opinion, but allow me one last try. Remember that summer when you met an amazing person and fell in love with and whom you still can’t forget? Whom you madly kissed or kept burning with the desire to touch? Well, this movie is about that kind of stuff too. Yes, you could call it a cliché, but think of that person you met, and then plunge into the love story of Noah and Allie. Lemme know if that made a difference in your opinion.
– Jo
3 of Spades 