The Notebook is the third movie this year (after Wicker Park and Little Black Book) that’s pretty average (or even less then average) for most of its duration, but is lifted impossibly high by a great ending, which I couldn’t even hint at, just to say that I think (though it’s sort of sad) is probably the happiest ending a love story could ever have, especially the kind of love story that this movie turns out to be.

I spent a lot of the movie sighing a little at the cheesy clichés in the backstory which makes up the bulk of the running time. Overall though, this part of the movie sparkles with energy, most coming from Rachel McAdams, a stark contrast with the present-day story with Gena Rowlands and James Garner. What bugged me most about these split stories initially was that it seemed like we were supposed to not realise who Rowlands and Garner actually were, as clues are slowly dished out, when to me it was obvious from the first scene in the past.

I need to see this one again: I think now I’ve seen the beautiful ending, it’ll have a major impact on how I watch the rest of the film next time.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 29th, 2004 at 5:22 pm in Movie Reviews, unrated. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.