The Notebook (2004)
Ryan Gosling is simply one of the
finest young actors working in film right now and
"The Notebook" is another example of just how wonderful
he is to watch at work. Given a terrific script and
an exciting young female co-star in Rachel McAdams,
Gosling excels and compels. Watching him on screen
is like watching fireworks light the sky.
Gosling has made a handful of important
films, "The United States of Leland" and "The Believer"
among the best, but "The Notebook" is the first real
chance he's gotten to play a real heterosexual romantic
lead in a Hollywood film. And he's simply wonderful
here. The first hour of the film is simply exciting
and engrossing as Gosling and McAdams begin a summer
romance set in the early 1940's.
It is rare that we have seen teenage
characters in this time setting that are as real and
as human as the ones Gosling and McAdams play here.
He is handsome, witty, intelligent, poetic, demure,
strapping and just withdrawn enough to be enigmatic
while open enough to be loveable. She is brash without
being annoying, smart, open, free and beautiful. When
they come together on screen, sparks nearly literally
fly. And for over an hour the couple continually draw
us deeper and deeper into the story of their love
and it is captivating and wonderful. What we like
most is that these characters, in many ways archetypes
- poor working class boy, intelligent rich girl -
are not stereotypical at all. They are realistic and
warm and wonderful. Even with the time setting of
the stuffy early 40's, one in which we expect convention
and moralistic hypocrisy to flourish, these two break
the mold by brining us two young lovers that are probably
the most accurate depictions of our grandparents as
young lovers that we can imagine. The are real and
human, full of love, emotion, angst and erotic energy.
But unlike modern cinematic teens, they are sexual
without being horny. McAdams is sensual without being
slutty or artificial, Gosling is hormonal without
being reduced to archetypical blue-balled whiner.
These are winning characterizations of young people
of the time depicted.
But "The Notebook" turns to crap
when James Garner and Gena Rowlands present the same
characters as adults. I love Rowlands and an overjoyed
to see her in any movie, but she has absolutely nothing
to do here and when she is on screen with Garner,
the chemistry of the film evaporates. We don't believe
these two (Garner is never more than Garner as an
"old man" character) and we could hardly care less
about them.
The last 20 minutes or so of "The
Notebook" is particularly awful and to discuss this,
I will have to reveal the ending of the film so if
you do not wish to have the movie's end spoiled for
you, please read no further!
Note: Spoilers coming!
Garner reads from the titular "Notebook"
in order to bring Rowlands' memory back to her. She
has "senile dementia" but when Garner gets close to
the end of the story, Rowlands' memory does return.
But this is played oddly, as if she is some sort of
sleeping space/time traveler. Unfortunately Rowlands
cannot pull this off as it is poorly written and Garner
gives her absolutely nothing to work off of. She's
stuck in a really unevenly written, real clunker of
a plot twist. We should have tears streaming with
heartwarming joy when Rowlands awakens from her mental
slumber, instead we shake our heads in disbelief and
ask ourselves, "What the fuck?"
This scene soon turns into a bigger
nightmare when Rowlands reverts back into senile dementia
and we are forced to watch the horrible sad ending
that unfolds here. Garner acts as if she's been overtaken
by the pod people in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"
than if she simply loses her memory again. This return
and then reverting back happens so quickly and is
so forced that it comes off as bad horror spoof and
seems hurried and contrived.
Finally, there again comes what
should be a heartbreaking and saddening moment in
the film, when the two die together in the film's
final scene, that doesn't work and offers us no emotional
outlet for our feelings. Again, we are awed with disbelief
at how badly this ending does not work. Filmmaker
Nick Cassavetes is reaching for a moment akin to the
final scene in "The Elephant Man" but does not have
to the script or the actors or the filmmaking skill
to achieve such a heartbreaking yet joyous moment.
The end of the film is forced, ridiculous and almost
laughable here.
It sad to think of the wonderful
work that Gosling and McAdams have done here being
trashed in the film's final 20 minutes by a poor script,
bad acting (by two old pros who seem utterly lost)
and inexcusably lame direction from what seems to
be an emotionless cold fish who seems incapable of
creating anything remotely close to cinematic melancholy.
Watch the first hour. Tell yourself
they live happily ever after and walk out of the theater.
Notes:
Also with Joan Allen, James Marsden
and Sam Sheppard.
Director Cassavetes is the son of
filmmaker John Cassavetes and actress Gena Rowlands.
Based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks.
Filmed in Charleston, South Carolina.
Viewed at a public sneak in Austin
in June 2004.
