"The Notebook" (2004): What Works/What Doesn't

Before Ryan Gosling was "Just Ken," he was "Duke"

Apr 13, 2024

Synopsis

Operating between two timelines, sixty years apart, the film adaptation of Nicholas Spark’s best-selling The Notebook (2004) tells the story of a well-to-do Southern girl, Allie (Rachel McAdams), and a poor lumber yard worker, Noah (Ryan Gosling) as they traverse class bigotry and defy societal conventions in the 1940s in the pursuit of love. The chemistry between the leads - Gosling and McAdams - two of the hottest rising young stars at the time is palpable and extended offscreen as the two dated for a few years following The Notebook’s release, though initially it was well documented that the two didn’t get along.

In the film, the present-day timeline transpires in an assisted care facility where a dementia-ridden Allie (played by Gena Rowlands who is coincidentally the mother of the director, Nick Cassavetes), and her dedicated beau (James Garner), a man named Duke spend their days together. Garner, we later find out, though suspect at the jump, is the older Noah, and he’s reading to the older Allie from “the notebook” or the story of their life together which Allie scribed in advance of her dementia with the intention that Noah would read it to her one day when she could no longer carry the memories. And so the days go on and each day, for a brief moment after hearing their love story, Allie remembers Noah, only to suddenly forget him. It’s painful, but what’s not is the performance of the two lead star-crossed lovers in this film.

Characters (That Work)

Ryan Gosling as Noah Calhoun. Everything about Noah Calhoun is downright admirable, well apart from the unhinged act he performs in the name of “love at first sight” by jumping on a moving Ferris wheel and hanging off the rung, begging Allie to date him or else. Moving past that, Gosling’s dance skills which he invokes throughout the film to woo Allie (McAdams) coupled with future husband material Herculean overtures like buying a house, gutting it, and rebuilding it based on her exact specifications, is the very definition of a man who loves a woman. Not to mention that he did all this using his sinewy forearms and hard-earned sweat. Even in this early work of Gosling’s, you can see that his days as a child performer on The Mickey Mouse Show honing his trifecta talent (dance, singing, and acting) paid off and would continue to because nowadays Gosling is the biggest male star in the U.S.
The Epitome of Romance
“I wrote you 365 letters. I wrote you every day for a year. It wasn’t over. It still isn’t over” - Noah to Allie
Rachel McAdams as Allie Hamilton portrays Allie’s charm and stubbornness with a plucky, resolute quality that has long endeared McAdams fans to her. The Notebook was McAdam’s first lead role, or close enough to it (Mean Girls (2004) released the same year and in it, she plays the seminal Regina George), and the first time audiences saw her carry a film, which she does capably. Add to that, her wholesome beauty styled in fashionable 1940s costumes and it was easy to see why we all fell in love. She dethroned Julia Roberts as “America’s Sweetheart” with this role. And ironically McAdams, like Gosling, is Canadian. Coincidentally, so is Alanis Morissette who penned the song, “Ironic” and who dated another Canadian - actor, football club owner and Mint Mobile mogul Ryan Reynolds, but I digress. In the scene below, some of the physical stuff is problematic, no doubt, but it shows you just how good McAdams is at her craft. For those wondering what the actress is up to nowadays, she’s preparing for her debut in the Broadway play, Mary Jane, whose prior run had The Leftovers’ Carrie Coon in the eponymous role about a mom whose child has Cerebral Palsy. [Vogue]

Subplots (That Didn’t)

Allie’s mother, Anne’s love story with a mustached Dan Scott from One Tree Hill: If there were to be a central villain in the film, it would be Allie’s mom, Anne, played by Joan Allen, who was typecast in Hollywood in the 90s for smart, elegant strong, middle-aged mom or wife character. Here, she once again fits that bill, but with a twist - she’s cruel. She’s determined to keep her daughter from Noah at all costs, even though he’s made her happy, just because Noah is not rich.
At one point before Allie and Noah break up, Noah overhears Anne cal him “trash.” But in what is undoubtedly her most hurtful act, Anne hides all 365 of the letters Noah wrote to Ally and lets her daughter think the love of her life has forgotten her. By the end of the film, she’s redeemed by the silliest subplot however which I’ve coined “Anne’s love story with a mustached Dan Scott from One Tree Hill.“ In it, we learn that before she married a rich man, like her daughter Allie, Anne fell in love with a commoner and these many years later, when she’s in town, she still sneaks away to watch him at the lumber yard. Her heart longs for Dan Scott! In choosing Allie’s father, a wealthy businessman, however, she put her social status first and to be fair, a more privileged life for her kids. She sacrificed, but she makes it clear to Allie that she also loves Allie’s father, because yeah, one explosive reveal at a time, please.
Check out the video below for the full Anne back story experience:

Noah’s Best Friend Fin dies at War: Fin (Kevin Connolly, Entourage) plays Noah’s light-hearted and sociable best friend whom he works with at the lumber yard. Fin and his girlfriend often double date with Noah and Allie. Where Noah is the strong, silent type, Fin is able to lighten up the mood. Overall, Fin serves as the consummate wingman for Noah and is a supportive presence in his life, especially when Allie moves away with her family at the end of their Summer romance. As they both sign up for the army in WW2, they are sent to Normandy under General Patton, where Fin dies a gruesome death. The death scene is quick and silly, if one can say that about a death scene. Bottom line. He shouldn’t have died - Noah needed him. And the film needed a counterbalance to the weighty, melancholic present day storyline.