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Sat, 12 Jul 2008

Movie Review: The Notebook
Title:The Notebook (2004)
Rating:7/10

At the beginning of The Notebook, an old man (James Garner) in failing health enters a room in a rest home where he meets and greets a silver-haired woman (Gena Rowlands)... seemingly for the first time. He is there, he tells her, to read her a story out of a notebook - a love story - about a young man and young woman who meet and fall in love during one summer, are then separated by class (and by WWII), undergo a lengthy separation (where the young woman becomes engaged to another man), and then reunite. We find out that the old man and woman are the young couple in the story, and have been married for quite some time. However, the woman is now suffering from Alzheimer's disease and can no longer recognize her husband or her family. The man reads their love story to his beloved wife every day only for the hope that she will "remember" and come back to him... even if it is for only a few moments during the day.

It is a touching story and hits close to home (for me), since I'm very much in love with my wife and would be hurt tremendously if she were to fall into such a state. The acting in the film, especially by Garner, really drives home the emotional impact of the material... particularly when the wife "remembers" at the end of the story and then relapses just minutes later.

The end of the movie lays it on a bit thick. I thought the climax of the love story, which coincided with the wife's re-emergence would have been a fine place to end. But the movie continues and offers a denouement that seemed a bit too contrived for me (albeit it did provide a happy resolution for the couple).

Summary: Worth a look.

:: Posted by rus on Sat, 12 Jul 2008 11:59 pm
:: Filed under /reviews/movies



       

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