The Notebook
Summary
Most rom - com fans would be hard - pressed to say there are n’t plenty of redeeming qualities ofThe Notebook , but after 20 years , there are some harsh realities of rewatching the movie that ca n’t be ignored . Based on the book by Nicholas Sparks , let go of in 1996,The Notebookwas adjust into a feature film starring Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as the central couple , Noah and Allie , in 2004 . In the years since the picture show ’s discharge , it ’s only grown in popularity and ill fame , as its influence is everywhere . However , popularity breeds criticism , especially when viewed through the lens of the 2020s .
The romanticism , forties esthetic , and forbidden sexual love all contributed to the iconic nature of the film , and it ’s improbable that watcher will give up on the account .
The Notebookmovie made changes to the book , as most films based on Sparks ' novel usually do , but the heart and soul of the narrative remained the same : Allie and Noah ’s sexual love story . The romance , 1940s esthetics , and forbidden honey all contributed to the iconic nature of the film , and it ’s unbelievable that viewers will give up on the story . However , understanding the issues and pitfalls ofThe Notebookwill only provide Modern interpretations of the novel to raise . Recently , the stage melodious establish on the book has made wave with its inclusion and diversity after the film was reevaluated .
10Noah Manipulates Allie Into Going Out With Him
The infamous carnival scene cements Noah as a terrible partner.
Most scientist , experts , and regular people agree that there ’s no such matter as love at first sight , but fixed storage - coms decline to let the image go . Noah appears to know something similar to this , but it makes him act manipulative and revoltingly toward Allie . He follows her around the carnival after she explicitly tells him she ’s not interestedand that she ’s there with someone else . However , he does n’t take no for an answer , setting the tone for the remainder of their human relationship .
Noah mount onto the Ferris bicycle while Allie ’s riding it and threatens to rent go and injure himselfunless she agrees to go out with him . Despite this being the legal action of someone with no esteem for the authority of the person they ’re quest for , the movie frames this as a sublime romantic gesture . Throughout the story , Noah ’s manipulation does n’t stop there , and Allie is pushed around emotionally based on what he wants and needs . Not to mention that after this intense start , he spends their first dates insulting her .
9Allie Treats Lon Terribly
She should not have been rewarded for disregarding the man who loved her.
Many criticisms ofThe Notebookare lodged against Noah , and truly so , but Allie is n’t a perfect character either . Her relationship with Lon ( James Marsden ) is one of the only healthy examples of love in the intact storey until Allie throws it aside for a man who treats her terribly . It ’s true thatAllie had been harboring feeling for Noah for many years , and she was pluck of her chance for closurebecause her female parent steal the letters . However , this does n’t give her an exculpation to cheat on Lon and betray his trust .
His decency makes it easy to dislike Allie and Noah for their selfish actions and for the audience to root for him .
To make matters worse , Lon is completely understanding and kind when Allie reveals to him what materialise , and all he asks is that she make out back to him if she desire to . It ’s unmanageable to guess Noah react so well if the part were vacate , and it ’s vindicated that Allie knows this . Lon is painted in a signally flattering light by the movie . His decency have it easy to dislike Allie and Noah for their selfish natural action and for the consultation to root for him . Throughout the story , it ’s Lon who helps Allie through her abject points , not Noah .
Image by Debanjana Chowdhury
8Allie’s Mother Shouldn’t Have Married Allie’s Father
Her story is one of the saddest and most misunderstood parts of the movie.
It ’s easy to characterize Allie ’s parents as the villains , but in realness , it ’s much more complicated than that . They do keep Allie away from Noah and have frightfully outdated ideas about love and relationships , but Allie ’s female parent , Anne ( Joan Allen ) , has a complex backstory . After Allie has her affair with Noah , Anne finally reveals that she , too , had a relationship with a mankind her family did n’t find suitableand that she still thinks about him to this daytime . When viewed through this lens , it ’s unclouded that Anne was trying to save Allie from the lifetime of brokenheartedness she faced .
While this does n’t forgive everything that Anne did , it does provide the necessary circumstance and paint Allie ’s don as an even clearer resister . It ’s devastatingly sad to take about what happened to Anne , and her report drives home the idea that these verify behaviors among kin are cyclic . Upon a rewatch , Anne becomes a much more sympathetic and understandable figure . However , this also leads the viewer to question what happened to her after Allie opt Noah and if she ever got her only happy ending as well .
7The Story Is Blatantly Classist And Sexist
The treatment of women and clunky discussions of class are glaringly obvious.
Perhaps the most essential struggle of the plastic film is that Allie ’s family does n’t cerebrate Noah is good enough for her because of their year differences .
The Notebook ’s setting and timelinecannot be separated from the level , and it was quite a dissimilar metre . However , while the cultural relationship to gender role and class division was markedly unlike from today , the report was written quite recently and can be judged by today ’s standards . Perhaps the most of the essence difference of opinion of the film is that Allie ’s kinfolk does n’t think Noah is secure enough for her because of their class differences . However , outside championing the power of love , the tale does slight to push back on this .
Noah is characterized as having to fall back to cheap ploy to get Allie ’s attending . Conversely , Lon deliver the goods her over with grace and appeal . However , this is n’t an indictment on cultural perceptions of class but on the chronicle ’s of the essence opinion about how people from different social stratifications do . to boot , Noah treat Allie as property , as do most people in her life . Noah ’s character of potent , silent masculinity is juxtaposed against Lon ’s emotionally available sensitivity . Allie ’s conclusion to be with Noah reinforces outdated discourse of genderand relationships .
Adapted from Nicholas Sparks' novel of the same name, The Notebook is a romantic drama film that follows a couple who fall in love during the 1940s. Duke, an older man, recounts the story of two young lovers whose lives never lined up quite right to a fellow patient in his nursing home. Reading from the notebook pages, the movie keeps flashing from the present into the past to tell the story of the one that got away.
6The Story Leaves Out The Horrors Of WW2
It’s merely a footnote in support of the larger love story.
There are many greatWorld War 2 pic praised for realism , while others are less realistic but still employ with the complex and traumatic case of the time . The Notebookuses WW2 as a backdropand use it as an excuse to kill off Noah ’s only friend in the story . Lon ’s injuries and Noah ’s loss are the only ways that the narrative meander the impact of the state of war into the story . Leading up to Noah ’s consignment overseas , it ’s promiscuous to forget that the war was coming at all .
Since the war is so ancillary to the plot , the story feel as though it ’s only set in the ' 40s for the style . While it ’s not the job ofThe Notebookto cut into into every boulevard of the war , it ’s confusing to see how little it touches the level ’s man . Noah comes home and directly begin to bring on his sign of the zodiac , and Allie go to school and commence seeing Lon as if nothing ’s happened . The omission of so many outside elements of the stage setting is indicative of the larger upshot ofThe Notebookbeing disconnected from realness .
5Noah And Allie Have Nothing In Common
While their physical chemistry is strong, this isn’t the basis for a long relationship.
Though they ca n’t be categorized as having an enemies - to - lovers arc , Allie and Noah are extremely agonistical with each other throughout the floor . During their initial courtship , it ’s clear thatthe of the essence constituent that ’s drawn them together is forcible attraction . While there ’s nothing wrong with this , and many amatory partnerships begin like this , it ’s ostensibly all they can tally on . They oppose constantly , nearly to the gunpoint of physical violence , and practically every sweet moment between them devolves into a scrap . The reason for their separation is that Allie ’s angriness at Noah occult her reason .
4The Representation Of Alzheimer’s Is Mishandled
Noah’s decision to read the notebook to Allie has been called into question.
The frame of reference history of the movie involves an older man , Duke , scan the report of a couple of immature lovers , Noah and Allie , to a cleaning woman with Alzheimer ’s in an assisted living home . Eventually , it ’s made well-defined that the older couple are Noah and Allie in the future and thatNoah incessantly read the story of how they fell in love to her to get her to remember . While this is a sign of his love and devotion towards her , it ’s not the sound course of action at law when caring for a loved one experiencing the disease .
Allie ’s discomfort and the confusion the chronicle do her are shown when she lashes out and does n’t want to see Noah in a key scene of the movie . to boot , the severity of the disease , its advance , and Allie ’s condition are unclear throughout the film . When she and Noah have each other and transcend on , it ’s jarring , as both appear relatively physically goodish throughout the movie . Not to mention , Allie ’s sudden and thoroughgoing anamnesis of her past is unrealisticand unfair to health care provider who are intimate with Alzheimer ’s .
3The Racism Of This Period Is Overlooked
While issues of class are on full display, racial prejudice is skirted around.
Creators will often betoken to the prison term time period a tale is set in to vindicate mold preponderantly white player and order only ashen stories .
The newfangled iteration of Sparks ' novel , the 2022 stage melodious adaptation ofThe Notebook , grapples direct with the story ’s legacy of whitewashing chronicle . Overwhelming purity is not a Modern feature film of period - piece movies , Koran , and television set . Lord will often channelize to the time period a news report is plant in to justify casting predominantly white actors and telling only livid story . In the future , the voices of author of color within the romanticism genre must be elevated . The media has been trending toward this in recent year , but it must be an combat-ready push on Hollywood ’s part .
Looking back on the original movie , it ’s as if Allie , Noah , and their livid family are the only the great unwashed in the world , with the few grapheme of color existing only in the background . The Notebookis hardly the only movie that is guilty of this , and it ’s something to keep in brain , especially consider the picture show is only twenty years old . There ’s always a agency to instill multifariousness into a story , as the musical professor , but there must also be place for fresh stories that feature this inclusion from the start .
2Lon Is A Better Match For Allie Than Noah
As a man and partner, Lon is a stronger fit for Allie.
There is an inherent desirableness to being one - half of a yoke of champion - cross lover , but not only did Lon make love Allie , but he was there for her no matter what . Allie ’s connection with Lon is representative of a more fledged and long - live on relationshipand one between two adults who have experienced brokenheartedness and deprivation . Part of the reason that Allie ultimately chooses Noah is because she wants to get back her innocence and the person she was before she lost Noah and go through the state of war . However , the someone she is in the end is just as worthful .
Allie and Noah have never lived together , just know each other as adults , and are basing the residue of their lives off of teenage first love . The human relationship between Allie and Noah only works in fabrication . Lon understands the life Allie want and prise her independence , something Noah rarely does . Any of the return that Allie sees in Lon are ones she projects onto him because she wants to win over herself to be with Noah . Lon pined for Allie as Noah did , but he handled it as an adultand treated her as a person alternatively of an aim .
Allie and Noah ’s conclusion in The Notebook left a few questions unanswered , and the streaming version ’s alternating closing only adds to the confusion .
1The Fallout From Their Affair Is Never Revealed
The period between their reunion and their deaths remains a mystery.
It can be assumed from Allie and Noah ’s residency in an up - scale assisted livelihood plate and the presence of their many child that things knead out when Allie picked Noah . However , the conflict and lifestyle changes both must have faced and the wallop on everyone else in their lives is never address . This is a fundamental trouble with many fixed storage - coms , asthe merrily - ever - after is raise for the sake of the tale , but this is n’t realisticto how relationships in reality unfold . Of naturally , The Notebookis a fantasy , but the significance that their lovemaking transcends all consequences is ridiculous .
The start of their lives together should n’t have been based on the past times but on the couple ’s potential for the future .
It ’s improbable that following the thing and break off her engagement to Lon , Allie ’s family would ’ve been automatically acceptingof their love . Her family unit was an important part of her life throughout the story , and she would n’t have want to throw this away . In Noah ’s final voice communication to Allie , when he tell her they need to struggle for each other , it ’s the last charm to her nostalgia and memory of her puerility . However , the beginning of their spirit together should n’t have been base on the past but on the dyad ’s potential for the time to come .
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conform from Nicholas Sparks ' novel of the same name , The Notebook is a romanticistic drama movie that travel along a couple who fall in love during the 1940s . Duke , an one-time world , recounts the news report of two young lovers whose lives never lined up quite right to a fellow affected role in his nursing home . read from the notebook pages , the movie keeps twinkle from the present tense into the past to tell the story of the one that got away .
