The Notebook

For the 2006 Indian film, see Notebook (film).

The Notebook
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nick Cassavetes
Written by	Jeremy Leven and Jan Sardi
Produced by	Toby Emmerich Mark Johnson
Starring	Ryan Gosling Rachel McAdams James Garner Gena Rowlands Sam Shepard James Marsden Joan Allen
Narrated by	James Garner
Cinematography	Robert Fraisse
Edited by	Alan Heim
Music by	Aaron Zigman
Distributed by	New Line Cinema
Release dates	May 20, 2004 (2004-05-20) (SIFF) June 25, 2004 (2004-06-25) (Worldwide)
Running time	123 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$29 million
Box office	$115,603,229

The Notebook is a 2004 romantic drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes, from a screenplay written by Jeremy Leven and Jan Sardi, which is in turn based on the novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as a young couple who fall in love during the early 1940s. Their story is narrated from the present day by an elderly man played by James Garner, telling the tale to a fellow nursing home resident, played by Gena Rowlands (who is Cassavetes' mother).

The Notebook performed well on the box-office and received several award nominations, winning eight Teen Choice Awards, a Satellite Award and a MTV Movie Award. On November 11, 2012, ABC Family channel premiered a special edition of the film with deleted scenes added back into the original storyline.

Plot

At a modern-day nursing home, an elderly man who people call "Duke" (James Garner) begins to read a romantic love story from his notebook to an elderly woman, and fellow patient (Gena Rowlands).

The story he tells begins in 1940. In Seabrook Island, South Carolina, local country boy Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) is smitten with a seventeen-year-old heiress named Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) after seeing her at a carnival, and they share an idyllic summer romantic love affair. Noah takes Allie to an abandoned house, which he explains that he intends to buy for them. Later that evening, she asks him to make love to her, but they are interrupted by Noah's friend Fin (Kevin Connolly) with the news that Allie's parents have the police out looking for her. When Allie and Noah return to her parents' mansion, they ban her from seeing Noah, whom they say is "trash, trash, trash not for you!" The two break up and the next morning, Allie's mother announces that the family is returning home to Charleston.

Noah writes a letter each day to Allie for one year, but Allie's mother intercepts them all and keeps them hidden from Allie. As each sweetheart/lover sees there is no contact from the other, Noah and Allie have no choice but to move on with their lives; Noah and Fin enlist to fight in World War II and Fin is killed in battle. Allie becomes a volunteer in a hospital for wounded soldiers, where she meets an officer named Lon Hammond, Jr. (James Marsden), a young lawyer who is handsome, sophisticated, and charming, and comes from old Southern money. The two eventually become engaged, to the delight of Allie's parents, but Allie sees Noah's shocked and hurt face when Lon asks her to marry him.

When Noah returns home from the war, he discovers his father has sold their home so that Noah can buy the abandoned house, fulfilling his lifelong dream to buy it for the departed Allie, whom by now he has not seen for several years. While visiting Charleston, Noah witnesses Allie and Lon kissing at a restaurant; he convinces himself that if he fixes up the house, Allie will come back to him. Later, Allie is startled to read in the newspaper that Noah has completed the house and she visits him in Seabrook.

In the present, it is made clear that the elderly woman is in fact Allie, who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease and cannot remember any of the events of the film so far. Duke, the man who is reading to her is, in fact, her husband, Noah, but Allie cannot recognize him.

Back in the nineteen-forties, the day after Allie arrives in Seabrook, she and Noah renew their strong romantic relationship and make love. In the morning, Allie's mother appears on Noah's doorstep, telling Allie that Lon has come to Seabrook to take her home. She takes Allie out for a drive and reveals that, twenty-five years earlier, she also loved a common man, of whom her parents also disapproved. She leaves Allie with a bundle of letters—all of Noah's letters (implying she had intercepted them as an attempt to protect her from getting her heart broken) and hopes that Allie will make the right choice. Allie confesses to Lon that she has been spending time with Noah. He is angry, but says that he still deeply loves her. Allie tells him she knows she should be with him, but she remains indecisive.

In the present, Duke asks Allie who she chose. Becoming lucid, she remembers that the story Duke was reading is the story of how they first met. Young Allie appears at Noah's doorstep, having left Lon at the hotel and chosen Noah. Elderly Allie suddenly remembers her past; after finding out about her illness, she herself wrote their story in the notebook with instructions for Noah to "read this to me, and I'll come back to you." But minutes later Allie relapses, losing her memories of Noah again. She panics, not understanding who he is, and has to be sedated.

The elderly Noah has a heart attack, and Allie is alone for a time. However, as soon as he is sufficiently recovered, Noah ("Duke") goes to Allie's room one evening to find her lucid again. Allie questions Noah about what will happen to them when she will not be able to remember anything anymore, and he reassures her that he will never ever leave her. She asks him if he thinks their strong and mutual romantic love for each other is strong enough to "take them away together"; he replies that he thinks their strong romance could do anything. After telling each other they love one another, Noah adds "Ill be seeing you". The next morning, a nurse comes into Allie's room, only to find Allie and Noah dead in each others arms. As the camera pans out, we see they died holding hands.

Cast

• Ryan Gosling as Noah Calhoun
• Rachel McAdams as Allison Hamilton
• James Garner as Old Noah Calhoun/"Duke"
• Gena Rowlands as Old Allie Calhoun
• Joan Allen as Anne Hamilton
• James Marsden as Lon Hammond
• Sam Shepard as Frank Calhoun
• David Thornton as John Hamilton
• Kevin Connolly as Fin
• Heather Wahlquist as Sara Tuffington
• Starletta DuPois as Nurse Esther

Production

Filming

The Notebook was filmed almost entirely on location in South Carolina, in late 2003 and early 2004. Production offices for the film were set up at the old Charleston Naval Base in North Charleston.

Much of the setting of the film's plot takes place in and around the town of Seabrook, SC, an actual town which is one of the South Carolina "sea islands." It is located 20 miles inland, halfway between Charleston, SC and Savannah, GA. However, none of the film was filmed in the Seabrook area. The house that Noah is seen fixing up is a private residence at Wadmalaw Island, SC, which is another "sea island" locality situated 20 miles closer to Charleston. The house was not actually in a dilapidated state at any time, but it was made to look that way by special effects in the first half of the film. Contrary to the suggestion in the film's dialogue, neither the house nor the Seabrook area was home to South Carolina Revolutionary hero Francis Marion, whose plantation was actually located some distance northwest of Charleston.

Many of the scenes set in Seabrook were filmed in the town of Mt. Pleasant, (a suburb of Charleston). Others were filmed in Charleston and in Edisto Island. The lake scenes were filmed at Cypress Gardens (in Moncks Corner, SC) with trained birds that were brought in from elsewhere.

Another major portion of the film was set at an unnamed nursing home, presumably located somewhere in the Carolinas. The nursing home scenes were actually filmed at Rice Hope Plantation, located in Georgetown County, SC. The college depicted briefly in the film is identified in the film as Sarah Lawrence College, but the campus that is seen is actually the College of Charleston.

Release

Box-office performance

The film premiered June 25, 2004 in the United States and Canada and grossed $13.5 million in 2,303 theaters its opening weekend, ranking #4 at the box office. The film grossed a total of $115.6 million worldwide, $81 million in Canada and the United States and $34.6 million in other countries.

Critical response

The Notebook received a mixed reaction from film critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 52% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 154 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film currently holds an average score of 53, based on 34 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews."

Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times praised the film, awarding it with three-and-a-half stars out of four, calling the photography "striking in its rich, saturated effects" and stating that the "actors are blessed by good material." Peter Lowry of Film Threat gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of five, he praised the performances of both Gosling and McAdams, he wrote: "Gosling and especially McAdams give all-star performances, doing just enough to hand the reins over to the pros, who take what's left of the film and finish the audience off with some touching scenes that don't leave a dry eye in the house." About the film itself, he added: "Overall, The Notebook is a surprisingly good film that manages to succeed where many other "chick flick" like romances fail."

Stephen Holden of The New York Times gave the film a positive review, stating that "the scenes between the young lovers confronting adult authority have the same seething tension and lurking hysteria that the young Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood brought more than 40 years ago to their roles in Splendor in the Grass. Ann Hornaday of Washington Post also gave the film a positive review, she also praised the performances of Gosling and McAdams, stating: "Never mind that McAdams and Gosling don't for a minute call to mind 1940s America; they're both suitably attractive and appealing. Gosling, who delivered a searing and largely unseen screen debut performance in the 2001 drama The Believer, is particularly convincing as a young man who charms his way past a girl's strongest defenses." About the film, she added: "Audiences craving big, gooey over-the-top romance have their must-see summer movie in The Notebook." William Arnold of Seattle Post-Intelligencer praised the performance of McAdams but criticized the performance of Gosling, stating the he "just doesn't have the kind of star power or chemistry with McAdams to anchor this kind of minor-league Gone with the Wind." He also added about the film that it "doesn't completely work on its own terms, mainly because its romantic casting just doesn't spark: It doesn't make us fall in love with its lovers." Wesley Morris of Boston Globe gave the film two-and-a-half stars, praising the performances of its cast members, writing about McAdams that "she's soulfully committed to the suds in the story and fiercely attentive to the other actors". He added about Gosling: "Gosling is adept at playing sociopaths and intense brooders, and there's reason to think, early on, that Noah might be similarly off, as when he threatens to drop from a Ferris wheel unless Allie agrees to go on a date with him." About the film, he wrote: "Considering the sunny, relatively pleasurable romantic business that precedes it, the elderly stuff seems dark, morbid, and forced upon us."

Jessica Winter of Village Voice gave the film a mixed review, stating: "Amid the sticky-sweet swamp of Jeremy Leven's script, Rowlands and Garner emerge spotless and beatific, lending a magnanimous credibility to their scenes together. These two old pros slice cleanly through the thicket of sap-weeping dialogue and contrivance, locating the terror and desolation wrought by the cruel betrayals of a failing mind." Robert Koehler of Variery magazine also gave the film a mixed review, he however, praised the performances, writing that "already one of the most intriguing young thesps, Gosling extends his range to pure romance without sacrificing a bit of his naturally subversive qualities, and even seems comfortable looking beautiful in a manly American way. The head-turner is McAdams, doing such a different perf from her top bitch in Mean Girls that it's hard to tell it's the same actor. She skillfully carries much of the film's emotional weight with a free and easy manner."

In June 2010, Entertainment Weekly included Allie and Noah in its list of the "100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years."

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Recipient(s)	Result
2004	Golden Trailer Awards	Best Romance		Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie of the Summer		Nominated
		Choice Breakout Movie Star	Rachel McAdams	Nominated
2005	Artios Awards	Outstanding Achievement in Casting – Feature Film, Drama	Matthew Barry and Nancy Green-Keyes	Nominated
	Golden Satellite Awards	Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture	Gena Rowlands	Won
	MTV Movie Awards	Best Female Performance	Rachel McAdams	Nominated
		Best Kiss	Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling	Won
	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role	James Garner	Nominated
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie Drama		Won
		Choice Date Movie		Won
		Choice Movie Actor – Drama	Ryan Gosling	Won
		Choice Movie Actress – Drama	Rachel McAdams	Won
		Choice Movie Breakout Performance – Male	Ryan Gosling	Won
		Choice Movie Chemistry	Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling	Won
		Choice Movie Liplock	Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling	Won
		Choice Movie Love Scene	Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling	Won

External links

• Official website
• The Notebook at IMDb
• The Notebook at AllMovie