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The Notebook
What?
Are you kidding? You came to Fanboy Planet to read a review
of The Notebook?
All
right, here goes:
As chick
flicks go, this is a decent movie. The script and story
hold no surprises for anyone with half a brain, but Nick
Cassavetes' direction does not try to hide that fact.
Do not
be fooled by the commercial featuring army uniforms and
a snippet of a battle scene; what you see is pretty much
all there is, if you're hoping for a brief foray into a
man's man kind of film.
However,
Ryan Gosling and James Garner do a decent job of being men's
men, though obviously softened by love. Gena Rowlands has
little to do but look befuddled, but she does it with such
sincerity that the tragedy of Alzheimer's, or in this case,
officially "senile dementia," really strikes home.
Especially when played off of Garner's character.
For
Fanboys, we must also point out that Cyclops himself, James
Marsden, has a small but crucial role as the man who comes
between Gosling and the luminous Rachel McAdams. But as
has become sadly de riguer in this type of story,
he's too nice, and quickly shuffled offstage before we can
see Marsden have any real emotional reaction. Will he show
a darker and stronger range as Jesse Custer in Preacher?
I don't know if I want to know.
On a
secondary note to set the Fanboys a-drooling, it looks like
McAdams, who has proven her range this year with Mean
Girls and now this (two very different characters),
is the odds-on favorite to play Susan Storm-Richards in
Fantastic Four. She would rock.
Unfortunately,
this movie does not quite. It's straightforward, a decent
entertainment that you can take your mother to, and I did.
The sextagenarian set gives it two thumbs up. However, it
doesn't seem to be sure where or how to end, which leaves
the bulk of the emotional weight to lie on the strong performances
of Garner and Rowlands, and a tremendously effective if
not particularly original score by Aaron Zigman.
To be
fair, it's a safe bet that the book by Nicholas Sparks has
the same problem. First person to read it and let me know
earns my thanks and knowledge that you have way too much
time on your hands.
Rating:
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