The Notebook (film)

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The Notebook

Film poster
Directed by Nick Cassavetes
Produced by Lynn Harris
Mark Johnson
Written by Nicholas Sparks (novel)
Jan Sardi
Jeremy Leven
Starring Ryan Gosling
Rachel McAdams
James Garner
Gena Rowlands
James Marsden
Joan Allen
Sam Shepard
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.
Budget $30,000,000 (estimated)
Gross revenue $115,603,229
IMDb profile

Contents

[edit] Plot of the film

Set in a modern day nursing home, an elderly man named Noah, but called "Duke", begins to read a love story from his notebook about Allie and Noah's undying love to his wife Allie who suffers from stage three Alzheimer's dementia. Before her dementia intensified, Allie wrote the love story of her and Noah down in a notebook. She gave it to him with instructions to read it to her on days she couldn't remember, promising that her memory would come back as Noah read her their love story.

The film/book begins in June 6, 1940. Seventeen-year-old Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams), the only child of a rich plantation owner, and her friend, Sara (Heather Wahlquist), are spending the evening at a local carnival in Seabrook, North Carolina; this is where Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling), a country boy who is with his friend, Finn (Kevin Connolly), first sees Allie. Noah is immediately smitten with Allie and he continuously asks her out on dates, only to be playfully rejected by her. Noah hangs off a Ferris wheel which Allie is riding, and tells Allie that he will let go if she doesn’t accept. To get even, Allie unbuckles Noah's belt, leaving him hanging from the Ferris wheel in his underwear and t-shirt. Soon, they wind up spending the evening with each other while going to a late night show with Finn and Sara. On a midnight walk through an empty Seabrook, Noah learns of how tightly scheduled Allie's life was with her daily schedules and activities. Yet he sees a deeper side in her, a side yearning to be free and he likes that. The first featuring of "I'll Be Seeing You" is played as they dance in the street.

Noah and Allie spend an idyllic summer together. Allie lives with her parents, John and Anne Hamilton, who are staying in Seabrook for only the summer. Allie's father, a Southern millionaire, appears to be okay with Allie and Noah's relationship, chuckling as Allie returns late home one night, merely laughing "Oh Boy!" as the two regretfully part for the night outside Allie's house. Noah lives only with his father, Frank Calhoun. Frank is welcoming to Allie and invites her to the house on regular occasions for dances and pancakes. Allie's mother is not so approving. One night, a week before Allie is to leave, Allie and Noah go up to an abandoned house called "The Windsor Plantation". Noah tells her that he hopes to buy the house, and Allie makes him promise the house would be white, with blue shutters, a walk around porch, and a room that overlooks the creek so she could paint. This is the place where Allie and Noah prepare to make love for the first time. A nervous Allie keeps interrupting Noah as he kisses her and when the moment seems finally right, they are interrupted by Finn who tells them Allie's parents have every cop out looking for her. Upon return to the house, Allie's parents ban her from seeing Noah, Allie fights with Noah outside and the two decide to break up. Allie immediately regrets the decision but Noah drives away. The next morning, Allie's mother reveals that they're going home that morning instead of next week. Allie frantically tries to find Noah, but is forced to leave without saying good-bye. The Hamiltons then send Allie to New York, where she starts attending school at Sarah Lawrence. Noah, devastated to be separated from Allie, begins to write one letter a day for a year, only to get no reply because Allie's mother keeps the letters from her. They have no choice than to move on with their lives, and Allie continues to attend school, while Noah and Finn enlist for the war and end up fighting in Europe under General Patton. Finn is killed in battle.

Meanwhile, Allie becomes a nurse for the wounded soldiers. There, she meets Lon Hammond Jr. Allie spends time with him and the two eventually become engaged, to the joy of Allie's parents as Lon is wealthy. Their wedding should be the local society event of the year. Lon Jr. although a well-connected young lawyer, is too stiff and absorbed in his work to fully meet her emotional needs.

While trying on her wedding dress, Allie is startled to read about Noah completing the house in the style section of a Raleigh newspaper and faints. She tells Lon that she yearns to paint pictures again and that she needs to get away for awhile. She decides to visit Noah in Seabrook.

During dinner Allie mentions that she is now engaged. Noah is startled by the discovery and questions Allie if her future husband to be is a good man. She reassures Noah that he is. Later on the evening, Noah invites Allie to come back. The next morning, Allie arrives and Noah surprises Allie by bringing her to a nearby lake where they get on a rowboat. They get far enough into the lake that hundreds of white swans float on by. Soon enough, they both begin to reminisce about each other and that summer. It starts to rain, and their conversation intensifies. Finally, Allie questions Noah for not writing her. “Why didn't you write me? Why? It wasn't over for me; I waited seven years for you. But, now it’s too late." Noah reveals to Allie that he did. "I wrote you 365 letters. I wrote you every day for a year." It becomes obviously clear that the two are still in love with each other. After the exchange of words, they share a passionate kiss. Throughout the next day, Noah and Allie make love to each other. In the midst of the afternoon, Allie’s mother shows up on Noah’s doorstep. Allie’s mother brings Allie to a time in her life where Allie may have not known, but her mother can relate much to Allie’s present situation. Allie’s mother shines light on how she handled the situation, and tells Allie has a difficult decision to make. When Allie’s mother drives Allie back to Noah’s house, she hands her the bundle of 365 letters that Noah wrote to her that summer. Noah is already waiting for Allie’s return on the front porch. Noah asks Allie what her decision is. Allie is confused and confesses that she doesn’t know. Noah is hurt and states that she wants security so that is why she is going with her fiancé. They are both in an argument when Allie starts to head for her car. Angrily, Allie yells “Stay with you? What for? Look at us, we're already fightin'.” Noah replies “Well that's what we do, we fight... You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing.” Being as confused as ever, Allie drives off.

She ends up seeing Lon where she confesses everything that has happened to her. He tries to convince her that he’s the guy for her, but he doesn’t want to be with her if she doesn’t feel the same way. The movie leaves the audience hanging with the decision that Allie has made. The next scene catches Noah coming out of the house and Allie getting out of the car with her luggage approaching him.

The film goes back to the elderly couple, and Allie asks Duke who Allie chose. She realizes 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 a brief intimate time together, Allie then suffers a "sundown" (described in a deleted scene when Allie has no recognition of anything or anyone around her) and panics. She has to be sedated by the attending physician. This proves to be difficult for Noah to watch and he breaks down. The next morning, Noah is found unconscious in bed (it is revealed in a deleted scene that he suffered a heart attack after the incident with Allie, the strain proving too much for a man with an already weakened heart) and he is rushed to the hospital, but he is later returned to the nursing home's intensive care ward. He walks in Allie's bedroom that night, and Allie remembers again. They talk, and Allie asks him if he thinks their love could take them away together, to which Noah replies, "I think our love can do anything we want it to." The nurse then finds them in bed together the next morning, peacefully in each other's arms, having passed away together.

[edit] The film

The film adaptation of The Notebook was released on June 25, 2004 in North America and starred Ryan Gosling and James Garner as Noah Calhoun, Rachel McAdams and Gena Rowlands as Allie Hamilton, Sam Shepard as Frank Calhoun, Joan Allen as Anne Hamilton, David Thornton as John Hamilton, and James Marsden as Lon Hammond Jr. It was directed by Rowlands' real-life son, Nick Cassavetes.

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • 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 and Reese Witherspoon.
  • 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." Coincidentally, Paul Johansson (Dan Scott in One Tree Hill) actually had an uncredited role in The Notebook as Anne Hamilton's former lover.
  • McAdams and Gosling won the "Best Kiss" category in the 2005 MTV Movie Awards for their scene in the film. At the MTV Awards, Gosling and McAdams kissed on stage to prove they were worthy of the award and People described it as, "a coming out" for the couple as they were dating at that time.
  • Stephen Dorff was originally set to play Noah Calhoun until he realized the producers were not willing to pay him.
  • 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.
  • The song that is attributed to the couple throughout the movie is "I'll Be Seeing You".
  • The poem that Noah reads out loud for his father when Allie comes to see him is Spontaneous Me, and the poem that Noah reads to Allie when she comes to visit him at the house is So Long, both of which are by Walt Whitman.
  • James Garner, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands, and Joan Allen have all been nominated for Academy Awards.
  • The film is referenced in the sketch Lazy Sunday; Andy Samberg raps that he loves the cupcakes like McAdams loved Gosling.
  • The scene where Allie sees Lon for the first time, after his recovery as a wounded solider, was filmed in front of the Cistern at the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC.
  • The piano piece that young Allie plays and old Allie remembers is Chopin's Prelude in E minor Opus 28 #4.
  • U, Me Aur Hum is the unofficial hindi remake of the Notebook which stars Ajay Devgan and his wife Kajol

[edit] Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregate at Rotten Tomatoes reported that 51% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 142 reviews.[1] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 53 out of 100, based on 34 reviews.[2]

The film was far more popular with women than with men. On the IMDb Women's Top 50 Films it is #27 [1], but men only scored it 7.4/10, far off the equivalent list.

[edit] Box office performance

The film was released June 25, 2004 in the United States and Canada and grossed $13.4 million in 2,303 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #4 at the box office.[3] The film grossed a total of $115.6 million worldwide — $81 million in the United States and Canada and $34.6 million elsewhere.[4]

[edit] External links

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