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BY BROOKE HOLGERSON
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Adapted by Nick Cassavetes from Nicholas Sparks’s novel of the same name, this film tries to evoke the 1940s but never quite finds the right tone, coming off instead like a big costume party. Using a flashback structure that seems to exist only to remind us that age catches up with everyone, The Notebook tells the story of Noah (young: Ryan Gosling of The Believer; old: James Garner) and Allie (young: Rachel McAdams; old: Gena Rowlands, Cassavetes’s mother), who meet as two star-crossed teens (she’s rich, he’s poor) in the South six decades ago. They fall in love, they separate, Allie gets engaged to someone else but never forgets Noah. It’s a standard melodrama plot, and Cassavetes, who directed the mawkish John Q, lacks the subtlety to underplay the weepier elements, leaving it to his actors to create some genuine feeling. At least they’re up to the task. It’s nice to see Gosling play a relatively normal guy, and he infuses his stock romantic character with some earthy, humanizing touches; meanwhile, McAdams mostly manages to make her free-spirited rich girl endearing rather than annoying. A good melodrama is hard to find, though, and this Notebook may still leave you dry-eyed. (121 minutes)
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