![]() ![]() What was up with that mustache and his whole vibe? It was so weird! (Side note: I was excited to discuss the dad today because surely everyone has spent the last ten years wondering why that character was so odd, but then I mentioned him to one of my female co-workers who has seen this movie several times, and she IM’d me: “i have zero memory of the dad. Can we talk about Allie’s dad in the movie? I was expecting him to be played by, like, Dylan Baker or somebody, not a fucking Mario Brother dressed up like Hugh Hefner. I must say, though, that their reactions to seeing each other’s uncovered junk are priceless. I also like how in the scene where Allie and Noah are about to make love for the first time in an abandoned, dusty spider-building, they get undressed so far apart, like an unhappily married rich couple sitting at opposite ends of a long dining table. It’s like the “If you jump, I jump” of The Notebook, right? I love that the most iconic line from The Notebook sounds like something you might say in an improv class. “If you’re a bird, I’m a bird.” Was this a thing? I’m vaguely aware that this might have been a thing. I will say this, though: Throughout this movie, Noah’s handwriting is impeccable. Do we want to talk about Ryan Gosling’s old nose in this movie? I’m just asking you, because I’m not going to say a word about it. Gosling’s good, too, and now I guess I understand why heterosexual women are so adamant about him in a way they aren’t about, like, Jake Gyllenhaal. You can’t say this about most actresses top-lining Nicholas Sparks romantic dramas, but she’s utterly alive in this role. Gosling is not always a generous performer with his scene partners, but you can really feel him stepping outside his comfort zone with McAdams, because while he’s talking, she’ll provoke him by laughing or rolling her eyes at completely random moments. Obviously, Ryan Gosling got the biggest career jolt from this movie, but I feel like Rachel McAdams is unusually underrated in it she’s so spontaneous and joyful in every scene. On that note, the way Allie repeatedly insists that she doesn’t want to go out with him and the way an unrepentant Noah threatens her and says “I’m not gonna ask you again” is just a litttttttle bit “Blurred Lines,” no? Is this a new romantic trope? “I want a guy who will love me for the rest of my life and really creep me out at first.” Why do so many of our movie love stories begin with the male lead leveling an obsessive stare at our clearly uncomfortable heroine? It happens in The Notebook, it happens in Twilight, and it happens in The Fault in Our Stars. But now that I’ve finally caught up to what you guys have been discussing for the last ten years, will you let me ask some questions and share some thoughts? There are 16 things about The Notebook that have stuck with me since I’ve seen it, and I want to know what you think about them, too. It’s a very handsomely made, throwback love story where the guy says he’ll love the girl until the end of time and Really Means It, and the movie remixes Titanic in a whole lot of clever ways: There’s a rich girl who wears big hats and has a snooty mom, a poor boy with blond bangs who loves her, a potent scene of old people cuddling in a bed, and flash-forward bookends that are destined to pull tears. ![]() Last night, on the eve of the movie’s tenth anniversary, I finally watched The Notebook for the first time. ![]() To a certain extent, I think it was a forgivable one: This movie has become mandatory viewing for a lot of young women (which means a lot of their boyfriends have seen it as well), but I’m a 34-year-old gay dude - it eluded me, you know? Still, I’ve watched so many movies over the last decade, like The Vow or The Fault in Our Stars, that were either influenced by The Notebook or were green-lit in some part due to its success it seemed only fair, then, to give the Ryan Gosling/Rachel McAdams romantic drama its proper due. We all have our cinematic blind spots, and until yesterday, The Notebook was one of mine. Photo: Maya Robinson and Photo by New Line Cinema ![]()
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