It's 5:30 am. Don’t ask me why I'm still awake: I just can't sleep. This has to be the first time stress has been the reason behind me having a late night, and wow, I had no idea how much it would suck. I have to do something to distract myself or ill just drive myself crazy, so I turned my laptop on after a hour of restlessness and thought of doing the one thing that keeps me sane: blogging.
Thankfully you guys are most likely used to my long reviews, but this one is very very long, so if you want to stop now or after a paragraph or so that's fine. I'm going to tell you this in case you don't read all of this review. Watch this movie because it will blow you away, because watching this movie might just make that one decision that you have been contemplating for a very long time. Either way, this movie is an experience in itself. Below is a picture of a scene when Noah and Allie are dancing, and whilst they are dancing a song plays, a song I have been listening to non - stop for the last hour. Listen to the song whilst you read the review if you can, maybe it will make things more vivid for you :)
Feel free to play this song if you continue to read the movie review below :)
The Notebook hmmm :) Would I sound crazy if I told you that I never read the book? I don't mean to say I never came across it and therefore never got the chance, because I have, come across it that is, but in the average case where I would pick up the book and then be curious about the movie, or watch a movie and be curious about the book? I watched this movie and had no intention to read the book. Maybe because the image of Ryan Gosling as Noah and Rachel McAdams as Allie is still embedded in my mind. I don't long for any other descriptions of these two characters apart from the ones that match these two actors. They have been Allie and Noah to me for such a very long time that reading the book and having those images change seems almost disastrous. Let me start from the beginning.
The movie starts of with a elderly women looking out of a window to a Lake . That day there is a clear sunset, and she seems almost captivated and lost in her thoughts. You see a old man introducing to that very women a story about two lovers.
A boy named Noah is at a Carnival that day with his friends Fin and Sarah (June 6th 1940) the first day they meet Allie is 17 years old. At once I noticed this calmness about him: he seems very relaxed and cool: his walk and the way he carries himself says it all. He first notices Allie when she is riding on some go carts with her friends. When she spots a boy staring at her, Allie seems miffed. I would be pretty annoyed too, I mean, this boy is practically just blatantly standing there staring, and he doesn't even have the decency to look embarrassed: just keeps looking. Of course as I say this I am smiling because I can imagine that smirk on Noah's face when she catches him looking :D
There is this thing about Noah or Ryan Gosling that I am often confused about. Whether it's Noah or Ryan Gosling I don't know, but either way he has this look in his eyes, you could practically get lost in them. Now I know that sounds cheesy as heck! But gosh, when he is staring at Allie I couldn't stop looking at the intensity of that stare: all the emotion was written on that one look alone. Out of nowhere as soon as she gets off he approaches her "You wanna dance with me" He sure has some guts! "No" is her reply "Why not" he asks "Cause I don't want to" which I'm sure sets a big LOL moment from the audience! Allie's friend is quick to remind her that unlike her wealthy family he is merely a Lumber Jack worker, hardly in her league.
Later that night Noah being the crazy boy he is, climbs on the Ferris wheel that Allie is on and threatens to fall off if she doesn't go out on a date with him. Sometime later when being tricked by her friend Sarah Allie goes along on a date that Sarah is to have with Fin only to find Noah there. Although the date is a disaster itself it paves the way for a moment that is to define the story. Allie is the good girl, safe, who goes by the rules, not much of a risk taker and very organised. When taking a walk with Noah she finally seems to open up. There is a moment when Noah lies on a road and opens up about his past, he asks her to lie on the road beside him, he tells her that she isn't free in the sense that she does whatever her parents want for her, which in return makes her doubt herself and takes a chance, she lies beside him on the road. This moment I feel is the moment she finds herself for the first time and places her trust in him without thinking of the consequences. Gosh it is just one romantic roller -coaster ride!. I have a few favourite scenes actually! One when Allie is hanging off a rope and is too scared to jump into the pond, and Noah is good-naturedly shouting "Get in the water, get in!" Daring her more like it, she sequels and says "I can't" and then he's like "I'm sorry, get in the water baby!" lol!
The Notebook has to be one of the most romantic/heartbreaking movies I have ever seen. Noah is not someone I would ever come across but he is everything that I would ever want. He is pretty much the perfect guy. He is so sensitive and understanding towards Allie, he keeps his word, and is passionate in whatever he believes in. The story is about a boy and girl who meet by chance, who fall in love but live in a world where they would never be accepted by Allie's parents. It is arrogance, pride, doubt and shame that the parents feel that causes this rift between two people who are genuinely in love. Like I mentioned, it gets harder to pick favourite scenes because there are so many of them. I have to be careful because I also have to avoid spoilers.
In Noah is a boy who is willing to do practically anything for the girl he loves to the point where there is hardly any doubt in his mind but in fact, hers! All he thinks about is her, there is not a moment of doubt when it come to their relationship. Being unfaithful is never a thought because they are just so in love. Hardly EVER do you find that man who is willing to do anything and everything for you. Noah is quite something. There is a reason that many even today hold on to the thought of there being a Noah out there somewhere, a reason why people wanted Rachel and Ryan to last.
There is a lot of love, heartbreak filled with angry yet tender moments. Allie's mother will play a big part in the story, but we will later realise that maybe we underestimated her intentions all along. The Notebook is an uplifting but a tragic love story all the same, it gives many a false hope that we will somehow always find our way back to the one we once loved, however it does show the flip side of a women who once loved a man similar to Noah and chose a different route, is hers considered a happy ending? Noah and Allie share special moments filled with happiness and joy, they are young, adventurous and rebellious once upon a time but this story also teaches us that we will not remain young forever, we all grow old and things change may they be for better or worse.
I feel like I haven't done this movie justice in any shape or form. It often happens when I am passionate about something. I can't seem to express my thoughts like I would like to, and that slightly disappoints me.
I watched it some years back and even then as a young teen I remember being in awe of this romance that seemed so unrealistic to me, so out of reach. I can imagine Noah and Allies story in a way to be a sign for those who are in love. For that girl who has been questioning running away with a boy she loves, for the boy who is afraid to tell a girl how he feels, for the couple who are afraid to defy their parents and for the girl who has always followed the rules.
When I think of the day The Notebook hit theatres I imagine people walking out towards love or facing a broken heart, looking at this love story and deciding on their own fate. The thing that may affect the audience is where does Noah and Allies story begin and Ryan and Rachel's end? We all know that they both started dating after this movie and did for a while, and this only further made fans feel that they represented that perfect couple. Ryan Gosling once made a statement
"I mean, God bless The Notebook,” “It introduced me to one of the great loves of my life. But people do Rachel and me a disservice by assuming we were anything like the people in that movie. Rachel and my love story is a hell of a lot more romantic than that.”
*Sigh* Now if that isn't romantic then I don't know what is.
The question that remains: is the ending a happy or a tragic one? I think the purpose of the ending is for all to perceive it in their own way. I can now say if there was to be a happy ending to this story this is the happiest it could have been. I guess one thing that many will get from this movie is appreciating the one they hold dear :)
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