"Behind every great love is a great story."
Directed by Nick Cassavetes
Produced by Lynn Harris, Mark Johnson
Screenplay by Jeremy Leven
Story by Jan Sardi (adaptation)
Based on "The Notebook" by Nicholas Sparks
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Joan Allen, James Marsden
Narrated by James Garner
Music by Aaron Zigman
Cinematography: Robert Fraisse
Edited by Alan Heim
Production company: Avery Pix
Distributed by New Line Cinema
Release date: 25 June 2004 (United Kingdom)
Running time: 124 minutes
Country: United States
Budget: $29 million
Box office: $115,603,229
"The Notebook" is a romantic drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes and based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The story is about young heiress Allie and country boy Noah who fall in love despite everything.
Cast
- Ryan Gosling as Noah Calhoun
- Rachel McAdams as Allison "Allie" Hamilton
- James Garner as Old Noah Calhoun / "Duke"
- Gena Rowlands as Old Allie Calhoun (née Hamilton)
- Joan Allen as Ann Hamilton
- James Marsden as Lon Hammond, Jr.
- Jamie Brown as Martha Shaw
- Sam Shepard as Frank Calhoun
- David Thornton as John Hamilton
- Kevin Connolly as Fin
- Heather Wahlquist as Sara Tuffington
- Ed Grady as Harry
- Obba Babatunde as Bandleader
- Mark Johnson as Photographer
- Starletta DuPois as Nurse Esther
- William Sattelberg as Ryan Gosling's stunt double
If you're looking for a good melodrama, "The Notebook" is something like this: a beautiful story with wonderful details and atmospheric visual effects.
This film is the first picture with Ryan Gosling I've seen - and what may I say? His acting is quite believable, the actor himself has charisma and what else a man of this profession needs? So I'm glad to watch him. And as for Noah, girls, who may reject this charming guy?
Rachel McAdams has already become one of my favourite actresses but firstly I knew her only how a romantic character - "The Notebook" still reminds me that.
Advantages
- Ryan Gosling as Noah Calhoun
- Rachel McAdams as Allison "Allie" Hamilton
- James Garner as Old Noah Calhoun / "Duke"
- Gena Rowlands as Old Allie Calhoun (née Hamilton)
- Joan Allen as Ann Hamilton
- James Marsden as Lon Hammond, Jr.
- Music
- The story
Disadvantages
- Quite lachrymose
"Strangenesses"
- Can love be so long lasting?
Clue Moments
- The summer with Noah
- Meeting with Lon
- The house
- The bath
- The ending
Can love be so eternal? May it last forever? Personally I want to believe it but I think it's impossible: people meet other people, feel different emotions, change all in all. And therefore, to my mind, love may be infinite only if two are ready to accept not only advantages but also disadvantages of each other. And I have to say a banal remark: no one has ever understood what love is in fact and I'm not a person who may do it.
Soundtracks
- Aaron Zigman - Main Title
- Aaron Zigman - Overture
- Billie Holiday - I'll Be Seeing You
- Duke Ellington - Alabamy Home
- Aaron Zigman - Allie Returns
- Aaron Zigman - House Blues The Porch Dance The Proposal The Carnival
- Aaron Zigman - Noah's Journey
- Benny Goodman & His Orchestra - Always And Always
- Glenn Miller & His Orchestra - A String Of Pearls
- Aaron Zigman - On The Lake
- Rex Stewart And The Ellingtonians - Diga Diga Doo
- Benny Goodman & His Orchestra - One O'clock Jump
- Jimmy Durante - I'll Be Seeing You
- Aaron Zigman - Noah's Last Letter
- Aaron Zigman - Our Love Can Do Miracles
Quotations
* * *
Young Noah: So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me... everyday.
* * *
Noah: I am nothing special; just a common man with common thoughts, and I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten. But in one respect I have succeeded as gloriously as anyone who's ever lived: I've loved another with all my heart and soul; and to me, this has always been enough.
* * *
Noah: Summer romances begin for all kinds of reasons, but when all is said and done, they have one thing in common. They're shooting stars, a spectacular moment of light in the heavens, fleeting glimpse of eternity, and in a flash they're gone.
* * *
Duke: That's my sweetheart in there. Wherever she is, that's where my home is.
* * *
Allie: Do you think our love can make miracles?Duke: I do.
* * *
Duke: How's it hangin' Harry?Harry: I keep trying to die, but they won't let me.
Duke: Well, you can't have everything.
* * *
Young Allie: It was real, wasn't it? You and me. Such a long time ago, we were just a couple of kids. But we really loved each other, didn't we?
* * *
Young Allie: [lying in the middle of the street] What happens if a car comes?Young Noah: We die.
* * *
Duke: They didn't agree on much. In fact they rarely agreed on anything. They fought all the time and they challenged each other everyday...
* * *
Martha Shaw: Look, a woman know when a man looks into her eyes and sees someone else.Young Noah: Now you know that I want to give you all the things that you want, right? But I can't, because they're gone... They're broken.
* * *
Young Noah: [while hanging from the Ferris Wheel] Will you go out with me?Young Allie: What? No.
Young Noah: No...?
Young Allie: No.
Young Noah: Why not?
Young Allie: I don't know, because I don't want to.
Young Noah: OK, then you leave me no other choice.
Young Allie: [Lets go with one hand] AHHHH!
Young Noah: I'm gonna ask you one more time, will you or will you not go out with me? I think my hand's slipping.
Young Allie: OK, OK. Fine I'll go out with you
Young Noah: No, don't do me any favors.
Young Allie: No, no I want to.
Young Noah: Say it.
Young Allie: I wanna go out with you.
Young Noah: Say it again.
Young Allie: I WANNA GO OUT WITH YOU!
Young Noah: All right, all right we'll go out.
* * *
Lon: [to Allie] The way I see it, I got three choices. One, I can shoot him. Two, I can kick the crap out of him. Or three, I leave you. Well, all that's no good. You see, 'cause none of those options get me you.
* * *
Duke: Science only goes so far and then comes God.
* * *
Young Noah: It's not about keeping your promises, and it's not about following your heart. It's about security.
* * *
Young Noah: You're gonna kill me woman! I need sleep, I need food, to regain my strength!
* * *
Anne: She is out foolin' around with that boy until two o'clock in the morning and it has got to stop! I didn't spend seventeen years of my life raising a daughter and giving her EVERYTHING, so she could throw it away on a summer romance!Young Allie: [Screaming] DADDY!
Anne: She will wind up with her heart broken or pregnant! Now he's a nice boy, but he's...
Young Allie: He's WHAT? He is what? Tell me!
Anne: He is trash! Trash! Trash! Not for you!
* * *
Duke: It was an improbable romance. He was a country boy. She was from the city. She had the world at her feet, while he didn't have two dimes to rub together.
* * *
Young Allie: Painting.Young Noah: What?
Young Allie: You asked me, what I do for me...
Young Noah: What now?
Young Allie: I love to paint.
Young Noah: Really?
Young Allie: Mmm-hmm. Most of the time I have all these thoughts bouncin' around in my head... but with a brush in my hand, the world just gets kinda quiet.
* * *
Young Allie: When I'm with Noah I feel like one person and when I'm with you I feel like someone totally different.Lon: Allie, it's normal not to forget your first love but I want you for myself. I don't want to convince my fiancée that she should be with me.
Young Allie: You don't have to. I already know I should be with you.
* * *
Noah: He got the notion into his head that if he restored the old house where they had come that night, Allie would find a way to come back to him. Some called it a labor of love. Others called it something else. But in fact, Noah had gone a little mad.
* * *
Anne: 'Cause I might know you a little better than you think. And I don't want you waking up one morning thinking if you'd known everything you might have done something different.
* * *
Young Noah: I'm not usually like this, I'm sorry.Young Allie: Oh yes you are.
Young Noah: I could be fun, if you want. I could be pensive, uhh... smart, supersticious, brave? And I, uhh, I can be light on my feet. I could be whatever you want. You just tell me what you want, and I'm gonna be that for you.
Young Allie: ...You're dumb.
Young Noah: I could be that.
Young Noah: Come on, one date, what's it gonna hurt?
Young Allie: Mmm, I don't think so.
Young Noah: Well what can I do to change your mind?
* * *
Duke: I am no one special. Just a common man with common thoughts. I've led a common life. There are no monuments dedicated to me and my name will soon be forgotten, but in one respect I've succeeded as gloriously as anyone who ever lived. I've loved another with all my heart and soul and for me that has always been enough.
* * *
Duke: She had come back into his life like a sudden flame; blazing and streaming into his heart. Noah stayed up all night contemplating the certain agony he knew would be his if he were to lose her twice.
* * *
Young Noah: What am I gonna do in New York?Young Allie: ...Be with me.
* * *
Young Noah: I see you got my letters, finally. What are you gonna do, Al?Young Allie: I don't know.
Young Noah: We're back to that? Are we back there? What about the past couple of days? They happened, you know.
Young Allie: I know that they happened, and they were wonderful. But they were also very irresponsible. I have a fiancé waiting for me at a hotel who's going to be crushed when he finds out what I did.
Young Noah: So you make love to me, and go back to your husband. Was that your plan? Was that a test I didn't pass?
Young Allie: No, I made a promise to a man. He gave me a ring and I gave him my word.
Young Noah: And your word is shot to hell now, don't ya think?
Young Allie: I don't know. I'll find out when I talk to him.
* * *
Young Noah: Stop thinking about what everyone wants, stop thinking about what I want, what your parents want! What do *you* want Allie?
* * *
Young Noah: [to Martha] You know I want to give you everything you want. But I can't. It's broken.
* * *
Allie: Did you write that?Duke: No, that was Walt Whitman.
Allie: I think I knew him...
Duke: I think you did too.
* * *
Young Noah: If you're a bird I'm a bird.
* * *
Young Allie: What's going on?Anne: We're going home.
Young Allie: We're leaving now?
Anne: Mm-hmm.
Young Allie: No, we're not supposed to be leaving for another week.
Anne: Get dressed, come downstairs and have some breakfast. Willa will pack your things.
Willa: Why, I'd be happy to pack your things, Miss Allie.
Young Allie: No, I don't want you to pack my things, I don't want you to touch my stuff I'm not going!
Anne: Yes, you are.
* * *
Duke: Southern summers are indifferent to the trials of young love. Armed with warnings and doubts, Noah and Allie gave a remarkably convincing portrayal of a boy and a girl traveling down a very long road with no regard for the consequences.
* * *
Duke: Allie was surprised how quickly she fell in love with Lon Hammond. He was handsome, smart, funny, sophisticated, and charming. He also came from old Southern money and was fabulously wealthy.
* * *
You may see the trailer here.
Plot: 8/10
Entertainment: 9/10
Acting: 7/10
Originality: 7/10
Music and Sound: 7/10
8/10
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