that’s my sweetheart in there … Noah and Allie

It was three films into my Ryan Gosling crush of 2012 that I got round to watching The Notebook … I am not too much of a N.Sparks fan on account of it being usually too sweet for my teeth.

Then again, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdam were both so pretty, had some chemistry and shared a couple of super hot scenes (not to mention dating in real life shortly after the film and that great bit of PDA at the MTV Movie Awards 2006)

But the true gem was in James Garner and Gena Rowlands and that moment (SPOILER) when he got her back and then lost her again in the space of a song. It was heartbreaking, ugly, real and sorrowful. These two remarkable actors captured so much of the characters laid out by the young whippersnappers, in a comparatively short space of screen time. Incredible.

The ‘young and pretty’ half of the film is young and pretty and enjoyable in itself. Allie’s character is infectiously wild and Noah does all that suffering, longing, pining, great big gestures of love and sacrifices that we girls just cannot help loving. This is especially delicious as Ryan Gosling is so well established as a convincingly sensitive hottie.

To be fair, both characters are true to themselves throughout the film, such that the story is believable, even when the harsh reality of age and frailty come crashing through in the second half.  Believable, that is, until that cop-out of an ending (SPOILER) … Why do we need to sugar coat the pill?  Noah had been dealing with the death of her – the person inside the body – for some time now, and she was all but unaware of his existence so saying goodbye or doing without would be less of a challenge … Surely we could cope if one died without the other at the end? Are we so naive or sensitive? Is this Bollywood?

I can almost forgive Nicholas Sparks for his past wrong doings – all his other stories for starters – but I wouldn’t watch The Notebook again. Especially as I was only mildly* excited about the romance and flirtations of young Noah and Allie.

*mildly means I was only re-watching the sexy bits on YouTube for one week after I saw the film…

 

ps: In my harshly judged world of GREAT FILM KISSES, Rachel McAdams should have shut her mouth before he swooped in for it. Don’t get me wrong, everything else in the whole kiss scene was spot on, but that one second of gaping jaw just spoils it for me (every time I hit rewind)

pps: My man, Ryan…I can’t help feeling the Notebook was a bit of a tenny-bopper sell out for the man who made Half Nelson and Lars and the Real Girl.