| | | Behind Every Great Love is a Great Story.
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Limited Edition
As teenagers, Allie (Rachel McAdams) and Noah (Ryan Gosling) begin a whirlwind courtship that soon blossoms into tender intimacy. The young couple is quickly separated by Allie's upper class parents who insist that Noah isn't right for her. Several years pass, and, when they meet again, their passion is rekindled, forcing Allie to choose between her soul mate and class order. This beautiful tale has a particularly special meaning to an older gentleman (James Garner) who regularly reads the timeless love story to his aging companion (Gena Rowlands).Based on the best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook is at once heartwarming and heartbreaking and will capture you in its sweeping and emotional force.
"Two thumbs up!" Ebert & Roeper
"A lovely surprise. Ripe with feeling and lush with physical beauty, it's a love story that swings confidently between age and youth..." Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal
"The best love story I have seen in years." Larry King, Larry King Live
"...well worth the risk of diabetic shock for the sake of superb acting that transcends its teary milieu." Lou Lumenick, New York Post
"...absorbing, sweet and powerfully acted...a film about falling in love and looking back on it, and it avoids many of the genre's syrupy dangers." Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
Editor's Note
Based on the celebrated novel by Nicholas Sparks, THE NOTEBOOK tells the story of a young couple who overcome insurmountable odds to experience the true power of love. In a modern-day nursing home, a kindhearted man (James Garner) reads a tender story to another patient (Gena Rowlands). The story begins during one glorious summer in small-town South Carolina in the early 1940s. Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) is a blue-collar log-mill worker who courts the wealthy and sheltered Allie Nelson (Rachel McAdams). Before long, sparks are flying and the pair is in love. But eventually Allie's snobby parents force their separation, and when World War II arrives, Noah heads overseas to serve his country. In the meantime, Allie becomes a nurse and falls for another man (James Marsden), to Noah's dismay. Nonetheless, he buys and fixes up the mansion he promised Allie he would one day restore, and when he and Allie reunite just before her wedding, their love blossoms once again. Decades later, in the nursing home, the story reaches its heartfelt conclusion. Directed with extreme sensitivity by Nick Cassavetes (son of costar Gena Rowlands), THE NOTEBOOK is aided immensely by the naturalistic performances of Gosling and McAdams, whose chemistry is palpable.
| Features | Interactive Menus | | Scene Selection |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: New Line |
| Release Date: 1/20/2009 |
| Original Release Date: 2004 | | Catalog ID: 1000042228 | | UPC: 00794043124723 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
MTV Award (2005) | | | Rachel McAdams, Nominee, Best Female Performance |  | Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Winner, Best Kiss |
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| | Professional Reviews | Movieline's Hollywood Life
"[I]t's easy to surrender to the swooning violins on the soundtrack....It helps that the film is lovingly crafted and extremely well-acted." 06/01/2004 p.104-6New York Times
"Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams break through the barrier to evoke high-strung, slightly crazed teenagers plunging headlong into first love....Their performances are so spontaneous and combustible that you quickly identify with the reckless sweethearts..." 06/25/2004 p.E1 Entertainment Weekly
"[P]atiently told, impressively performed, and beautifully shot..." 02/11/2005 p.52 Chicago Sun-Times
"The performances respect the passion at the beginning and the sentiment at the end, not pushing too hard. It's a tear-jerker, but well-acted and deeply felt." 02/04/2005 p.24 ReelViews 7 of 10
I have not read Nicholas Sparks' The Notebook, but I have heard good word-of-mouth about the novel. Sadly, the elements that made the book special did not survive the transition to the screen. The Notebook, as adapted by Nick Cassavetes from a screenplay by Jan Sardi and Jeremy Leven, comes across as an ordinary romantic melodrama with a maudlin and ineffective climax...The Notebook represents an instance when the desire to obtain a particular MPAA rating has resulted in some bizarre choices. To avoid courting an R, the actors are forced to cover themselves with sheets and the camera is often positioned in a way that makes it seem almost as if the characters are posing...Fans of sudsy romances will adore The Notebook, but the film fails to manipulate the intellect with the same effectiveness that it tweaks the emotions. The best thing that can be said about the movie is that it's a worthy antidote to the usual testosterone-driven summer fare, but, in its inability to effectively develop the modern aspect of the story, it fails to throw the tear-jerking emotional punch it might have achieved. - James Berardinelli
Reel.com 6 of 10
Narrative improbabilities, anachronisms, and plot holes abound in The Notebook, yet director Nick Casssavettes (John Q.) steam rolls right over them to keep the tears flowing on schedule. In all fairness, he does a pretty good job of drawing you into the characters' star-crossed love story. It helps that Cassavettes has a genuine find in newcomer Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls), who's immensely winning and natural as Allie. She tackles the role with utmost conviction and has charm to spare, whereas Gosling, so extraordinary in The Believer, comes off as too detached and contemporary, as if he were in a different movie altogether (wishful thinking on his part maybe?). And while Garner and Rowlands are reliably solid as the couple in their twilight years, both Joan Allen and Sam Shepard, the latter doing his usual literary hayseed turn as Gosling's father, can't do much with their thankless roles...The third of Sparks' novels to reach the big screen, the others being Message in a Bottle (1999) and A Walk to Remember (2002), The Notebook is a guilty pleasure that elicits both snickers and sniffles in equal measure. - Tim Knight
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