The Blog
This blog will be all about film reviews. I'm going to be watching a lot of movies, writing reviews, and hopefully not spoiling any movies you plan to watch.
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Verdict: Thumbs Up You know a movie is really good when it makes you cry tears that aren’t the “I’m about to slit my wrists this movie is so bad” tears. The Notebook, inspired by a book of the same name, uses a beautiful plot with well placed narration and symbolism to create a truly moving film. The plot is a story within a story. It begins with an old man telling a story to a woman with dementia. The story is of a young man, Noah, in South Carolina in 1940. He sees a beautiful young girl, Allie, who comes from a wealthy family. The two fall in love and spend the summer together, becoming more and more romantically involved. While Noah’s father likes Allie, Allie’s parents do not accept Noah as he does not come from a wealthy family. This comes to a head when Allie and Noah attempt to make love before being told the police are looking for her. After a fight instigated by Allie’s mother, the two break up and Allie moves to New York. However, Noah writes to her every day for a full year before believing that Allie is over him. In reality, Allie’s mother had intercepted all the letters and kept them from her. During the war, Allie falls in love with a soldier from a rich southern family and the two become engaged. Noah buys the house he had promised Allie and fixes it up just as she requested. When Allie learns of this, she visits Noah and the two fall in love again. Allie’s mother explains why she kept the letters from Allie and gives her blessing if the two wish to be together. The story cuts back to Noah reading to Allie, trying to get her to remember him. She suddenly remembers but only briefly. Noah has a heart attack, but when he comes back to the old people’s home, Allie remembers him and the two fall asleep together and are found dead together. During the story, the scene would cut back to Noah reading to Allie in her old age and occasionally you would hear Noah narrating the story. The use of Noah as a narrator adds a great deal to the story, as simply telling the story as it is loses a majority of the emotion. The backstory of Noah and Allie is touching but it lacks that emotional punch, that moment that puts your emotions up against a wall. Seeing how torn Noah is over Allie in her deteriorating state makes the audience feel real pain. When Noah’s children confront him and ask him to leave, it’s a painful moment knowing that he is still fighting for this woman who doesn’t even remember him. That he cares that much physically hurts because you know that know matter how hard he tries, little will come out of it. That love touches the soul so deep down. When finally Allie remembers in her room and they dance, that moment is touching, but what is more emotional is when he calls her darling and she steps back and says “Why did you call me darling?” In that moment you know that the beautiful thing that had just occurred is over and that all his hard work is gone. Seeing her screaming at him and for help is genuinely painful and if it doesn’t bring tears to your eyes then you have no heart! After that moment, that emotionally shattering moment, the tone changes. The movie comes quiet and subdued. Even when Noah returns from the hospital, there is still a very gentle feel, like the world is now made of glass. When Noah and Allie lie down in the bed together, it feels like a very nice, quiet goodnight. It is the ending the movie needed, as anything else would be to harsh in that delicate land that Cassavetes created. The Notebook is filled with symbolism that helps to make emotional connections that make the events even more rooted in the viewer's mind. When Allie and Noah sleep together following her return to Noah, there is a scene when the two are lying down talking, and Allie puts her hand on his shoulder. While out of focus, the engagement ring is clear to see on her ring finger. It shows how her love for her fiance is becoming blurred and shows how she must choose between Noah and her fiance. Another instance is the rainstorm that hits while the two are out on the water. Like the rain releasing from the sky, suddenly all the pent up emotion that the two had been holding back to that point are let loose as first they fight, then make love. Moments like this are all reminders of what is happening, adding emphasis to the moment. While not a show stopper, without these little moments, the movie would just feel somewhat forced, the plot would be pushed along instead of flowing at its own rate. Undeniably one of the most well crafted and beautiful love stories of all time, The Notebook stuns and engages the audience in a way that can only result in emotional reactions as the viewer watches love begin, flourish, and end.
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June 2018
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