My Thoughts on Watching “The Notebook” for the First Time
So yeah, this weekend I sat down with my girlfriend and watched "The Notebook". I thought I could go my entire without having to say that but whatever. Overall, it was an ok movie.
It had a love story, it had some drama, it had some very bad moments, it had some very unrealistic moments, it had some awkward moments.
The Love Story
From the first scene I knew this was going to be one of those "the story will be acted out as someone is reading a story" movies. He's a common worker, she's a southern belle from a rich family, the typical "shouldn't be falling in love" story. They fall in love over a summer, separate, get back together years later, live happily ever after. That's fine and all but played out.
The only part of this story that any impact on me was Allie living with alzheimers. My grandmother had alzheimers, which later turned in dementia. Seeing Allie's children and grandchildren having to introduce themselves to her on their visit brought back some sad memories of doing that with my grandmother. Just the whole story line of Noah and Allie's relationship while dealing with alzheimers really resonated with me more than anything in the movie. Outside of that, I could not get emotionally attached to anything else.
The Bad, Unrealistic and Awkward Moments
Bad moments may not be the right description but whoever edited this movie did an awful job. What were supposed to be really emotional moments in the movie were ruined but a jarring edit. It was bad all throughout.
The moment that made the love story completely unbelievable was when Noah and Allie were on the river and they come upon the flock of geese or ducks or birds on the water. Come on. Just have them row into a waterfall or something, that would have been better.
And lastly, the whole stripping down in the old house bit. There has never been a more unromantic, unsexy scene in the history of movies. So awkward, and frankly, a boring scene.
Anyway, my thoughts on watching "The Notebook." I did shed a couple of tears at the ending. That had more to do with me thinking about my grandmother than anything. Overall, I'd give it a C-, which is higher than Rotten Tomatoes score but lower than the audience score.
Additional Note
James Garner was a highlight of the movie for me. He's always been one of my favorite actors.