The Notebook by Nick Cassavetes - Movie Review Example

THE NOTEBOOK (A Comparative Paper of the Book and the Novel) “Summer romances begin for all kinds of reasons, but when all is said and done, they have one thing in common. They're shooting stars, a spectacular moment of light in the heavens, fleeting glimpse of eternity, and in a flash they're gone.” - The Character of Noah in The Notebook I. Introduction Print and audio-visuals are two different genres of presentation. This paper aims to compare and scrutinize how these two differs from one another through an analysis of a story presented in both in novel and in motion picture. A story that evokes passionate love and made its viewers shed tears on their eyes, “The Notebook” is a film directed by Nick Cassavetes inspired by the novel with the same title written by Nicholas Sparks. The theme of the story falls under the category of drama. It has something to do with mainly the idea of the complexity of human relationship and a little of the idea of human nature. Generally, the film integrates a melodrama type of mood. In the analysis that will be done, it should be noted that the movie incorporates only the important pieces of the novel, thus making it lose some dramatic and fictional elements that can be found in the book. However, the interpretation of these elements in the book may vary when it has been put into visuals. This is because there are some scenes that are better portrayed differently from the book to the film to create appeal to the viewers. Points of view of the two different medium also show some discrepancies. Visualization is one aspect to consider. In all print medium, the readers are subjective on their own imagination of how the events happened. However, films pose a specific or standard way of how viewers are going to visualize the events happened. In print, it’s the viewers’ choice of whatever angle they want to look at but in movies, it’s all in the hands of the camera man. Musical scoring is also one advantage of the film from the book. The music adds realism and emphasizes the mood of the story. The edited parts of the novel that were not shown in the movie are also one consideration to look at. Are these edited parts of substantial importance to the story? Is the lost of these parts created misinterpretations? Characters are also one important factor to look at. Are there characters in the novel that were not included in the film? Are these excluded characters of great importance to the story that their absence in the movie made the story lesser? The direction of the film is also to be analyzed. Let us consider that a director for film may have different method of presentation from an author fro print. Examining this aspect will give better understanding on why certain parts of the novel are presented differently from the movie. All these factors to be considered will be further discussed as you go on to this paper. II. The Thematic Category The Plot Synopsis The story happened in 1940’s when a 17-year-old girl named Allie Hamilton spent her summer vacation to the coastal town of Seabrook, North Carolina with her family. She met a local boy named Noah Calhoun at a carnival. From that night on, Noah felt that Allie is his destiny. Despite their different status in life, the two had fallen deeply in love with each other. The outbreak of World War II made Allie’s parents decide to bring Allie to New York and study nursing there. They had no choice but to break up and live a life without each other. The first year was so difficult for both of them. Noah had written her letters everyday but his letters were never received by Allie because they were intercepted by her mother. Years past, Noah became a volunteer soldier at the war; Allie became a volunteer nurse in New York. After the war, Allie was engaged to Lon, a wealthy soldier she met while volunteering in a GI hospital. On the other hand, still trap on his love for Allie, Noah put up their dream house the way they planned it to be. The house was published in the newspapers and Allie was able to have a glimpse of it. Stunned about what she learned, Allie decided to go back to the place they shared the memories of their love. She has the only intention of having a closure to her ex-boyfriend. But the events turned out the way she does not expect to be. They both felt the feeling they had when she was still seventeen. But this time, it is too much complicated. She’s engaged and Noah’s seeing another girl. But love had found its way to bring them together in each other’s arms. When they grew old, they had their health complications and Allie found herself sick of Alzheimer’s disease. They were both in a nursing home and Noah used to read Allie a love story from a notebook they had written. It was their story. He had to do it for Allie so he could bring her back to her memories – the memories they shared together. The story ended as Allie was able to recognize that the man reading to her and Noah are the same person that she loved. But they continued their love story in their life after death. Details of the story The setting of the story happened during the 1940’s in a town in North Carolina. The main characters in the story are Noah Calhoun portrayed by Ryan Gosling and Allie Hamilton portrayed by Rachel McAdams. The conflict of the story is man versus circumstances. The characters were challenged by the unfortunate circumstances happened in their lives. It is noticeable that the style of the writer in presenting the vents is a flashback. A narrator (the adult Noah) is narrating the events happened in the past to the adult Allie. The style makes the viewers wait for what could probably be the ending of the narrated story that would lead to the situation of the two elders at present. Ideas Presented The main idea of the story evokes complexity of human relationships. Just as what happened to the story, Allie and Noah’s relationship was a really roller coaster ride. There are so many complications they had to resolve but they were able to surpass them all. There is also the idea of human nature. In the story, though they were so much in love with each other, when they fell apart they had affairs with other people. It is human nature that after we experienced trials in our life, we had to move on and start a new life. In the case of Allie, she had a new love that made her forget the pain of losing her past love. On the other hand, Noah diverted his loneliness by getting busy building his dream house and by having an affair with a woman that he’s really not in love with. That’s one way people try to ease the pain they had suffered. It is human nature. Another idea inputted was the idea of coming of age or growing awareness. The characters had to face one reality of life – that is, growing old. And during that stage, their relationship was tested again. Growing old entails too many health complications and in Allie’s case she suffered from Alzheimer’s disease. Noah had his own complications also, he had several heart attacks. The story tries to open the viewers’ minds on the reality of growing old. The film has made this function very well. The idea of social comment was also present in the story. it was mentioned in the story that one factor of the couple’s breaking up is their different social status. The mother of Allie was so upset of the idea that her only daughter will have a relationship with a poor mill worker only. Her mother wearies of what her colleagues would say about her daughter. Generally, The Notebook is a melodramatic movie. The mood was well supported by the intense dramatic scenes and dramatic musical scoring. III. Movie Reviews There were several reviews that had been made for this movie. Comments with respect to the time setting and rendition of the story Norm Schrager on his review of this movie noticed the importance of Nicholas Sparks’ playing along the timeline which was edited from the movie. He had said on his review that: “I'd bet this jumping back and forth along the timeline is essential in Sparks's novel, but it's wasteful onscreen, holding little of the emotion or tension that the filmmakers intended. This type of framework has been a stumbling block for solid Hollywood entertainment before, recently in Saving Private Ryan (the clunky narrative of the Normandy visit) and The Bridges of Madison County (the reading of notes and letters). The Notebook's problem, however, is worse: By hinging on the dynamic of the flashback, rather than its action and meaning, the past loses some of its heartache and sting, and the film feels like nothing but a means to an end.” Schrager was also mentioning on his review that the director of the film (Nick Cassavetes) promotes a negative stereotype view of the Hollywood about the Alzheimer’s disease. He said that Hollywood over states the effects of Alzheimer’s disease even if it is in reality inappropriate. This is because by doing this, they can induce more emotions from that situation and that they could easily play around with its effects on the story. For Schrager, Cassevetes’ way of directing the film is quite too favorable for hopeless romantic viewers because he had just taken the romance bits of the novel and left some of the “steamy parts” of the story itself. For Mark Leeper the story was too predictable that the thrill was not felt: “...the main plot line of the rich girl and the country boy is just too familiar and cliched. The viewer seems to know what will happen long before the characters do.” Comments with respect to the focus and objective of the filmmaker Another commentator I read about is of Willie Waffle. He said that The Notebook paid more attention to making people cry rather than giving more color to the story itself. However, I assume that Waffle is referring only to the movie and not the story as what is told in the novel. I had this thought because he had compared Jeremy Leven the script writer for the movie to Nicholas Sparks, the writer of the novel. In his review, it was as if he was trying to imply that Leven and Cassevetes were not able to give depth to the story written by Sparks. “The Notebook is trying so hard to make us cry, I was left to wonder if that was more important than the story. It's an interesting and emotional movie, but a simple one that relies on clichés to fill in the holes. Often sacrificing substance for a few, hopefully memorable moments, writer Jeremy Leven (based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks) and director Nick Cassavetes don't bring a great deal of depth to The Notebook.” He believes that the movie was on a kind of rush to create crying scenes neglecting meaningful dialogues, character development and intellectual involvement of the viewers. Bill Beyrer, on the contrary, commended Cassevettes with his good rendition of the settings such as picturesque sunsets and green fields which was of great appeal to the viewers. But he pointed out also the weak presentation of the World War II. “This is where The Notebook starts to dip a bit out of the stereotype. While Allie is away at college Noah and his best friend (Connolly) join up to fight in World War II. Normally that would then take up the rest of the movie, or at least affect the character. The WWII sequence is less then three minutes long and Noah really doesn’t seem that affected from the war. It is said he fought at the Battle of the Bulge, which if you’ve seen Band of Brothers you’d know that was a situation that would stay with you. The only reason the scene was in the flick was to kill off his best friend and grant Noah money from the G.I. Bill to buy a house. It was a wasted plot devise. Unfazed from the war, Noah only starts going downhill after his father dies. There is virtually no mention of the war for the rest of the movie Why was this even here? I hate to see them use World War II as a period crutch.” Comments with respect to the immediate presentation of details For Michael Rechtshaffen, the immediate revelation of the details of the relationship of James Garner as the old Noah and Gena Rowlands as the old Allie is an advantage. He claimed that: “Naturally there is much more to the Garner-Rowlands relationship than what at first meets the eye, and, thanks to all the less-than-subtle signaling done by director Nick Cassavetes ("John Q") and screenwriters Jeremy Leven and Jan Sardi, those details are revealed a lot sooner than intended.” Comments with respect to the cinematography and visual effects James Berardinelli focused his comments on the film on the cinematography. He stated that: “The cinematography is evocative and the music never goes over-the-top. Unfortunately, things don't work nearly as well when Garner and Rowlands take over the parts. Their aspect of the story doesn't work. It comes across as a badly diluted imitation of Iris (which handles the issue of fading memory with more poignancy than The Notebook could hope for). And, not only are the modern-day scenes dramatically inert, but it's virtually impossible to accept that these are the same people as the ones falling in love in the '40s. Fortunately, only about 20% of the movie unfolds when the characters are in their twilight years.” Roger Ebert is also commending the visual effect of the movie. On his review, he stated that: “The photography by Robert Fraisse is striking in its rich, saturated effects, from sea birds at sunset to a dilapidated mansion by candlelight to the texture of Southern summer streets. It makes the story seem more idealized; certainly the retirement home at the end seems more of heaven than of earth.” Comments with respect to actors’ performance For Dustin Putman, the actors appealed to him very much that especially the way Ryan Gosling carried out his character: “Much of the credit for making this plot work deservedly goes to Ryan Gosling (2004's "The United States of Leland") and Rachel McAdams (2004's "Mean Girls"), a perfectly engaging pair as the young Noah and Allie who share ample chemistry, both with the camera and with each other. For Gosling, who has memorably played a lot of mentally unhinged characters in the past, and for McAdams, who has been stuck in stereotypical teen parts, this is an ideal entrance into starring roles. Both are up to the challenge of portraying romantic leads the viewer wants to see get together, and it helps all the more that they exhibit quite hefty acting chops that should propel them further in their careers.” Agreeing with Dustin Putman, Catharine Tunnacliffe speaks well of the good performance of the main actors of the film: “It's easy (and tempting) to be snide about such unabashed sentimentality, but Canadian actors McAdams (Mean Girls) and Gosling (The Believer) are whole-hoggers when it comes to acting, and they bring an impressive degree of sincerity to their roles. McAdams, in particular, has the look of a '40s movie star and the facility for both light comedy and melodrama -- not an easy combination. In the end, though, The Notebook is a fantasy that casts its mantle of squishy sentiment around everything, from home improvements to death itself.” On the side of the supporting actors and actresses, Robin cliffrod made substantial comments on how well they performed: “Supporting characters are well cast with Sam Shepard giving a warm, kind perf as Noah's dad. Joan Allen, as usual, does a letter-perfect job as Allie's aggressive mother who ends up telling her daughter her own back-story of unrequited love. James Marsden has the movie star looks and easy presence that gives his character, Lon, full dimension. John Thornton, as Allies father, starts off as a sympathetic character but his role is overshadowed by his wife's ironhanded grip on her daughter's life. Jamie Brown is sympathetic as Martha, the young war widow Noah turns to for comfort but who is always in Allie's shadow.” Comment for the movie The Notebook as a Hollywood Film Fro Dragan Antulov, this is a movie that Hollywood would take pride of: “THE NOTEBOOK is one of those films Hollywood used to make in its golden days – unashamedly manipulative melodrama accompanied with beautiful cinematography, impressive sights, likeable sounds and impressive amount of period details. Technically speaking, THE NOTEBOOK is a successful film.” Personal comments with respect to the totality of the film On my own view, the film fairly gave its best shot to give justice to the novel. I understand that not everything of importance to the novel can be incorporated in a two-hour film. There are really parts of the story that was weakly presented. Take for example the fictional element of the movie like the things happened in the World War II. It is considered fictional since there are no proofs that there exist two characters namely Allie Hamilton and Noah Calhoun during those times. Considering it is already fictional, the movie over made it more fictional by understating the events during the war. But that was understandable I think since, as I had said, it is impossible to incorporate everything in a two-hour movie. That, in a sense, is also making the film to compromise with the novel. How? If there are loopholes in the movie, viewers will have the eagerness to read the novel in order to fill the loopholes. In short, the movie becomes an indirect promotion of the book. If the movie incorporated everything in the novel, then those viewers who haven’t read the book will not bother to read it, considering that it is a lot more convenient for a person to sit and watch for two hours than to spend one to three nights reading the novel. In this premise, I beg to disagree with Schrager that the movie neglected the intellectual involvement of the viewers. Moreover, the dramatic elements of the movie were, yes, over presented. I can see the point that Cassevettes was focusing a lot on teasing the emotions of the viewers. Crying scenes really dominate the movie and the dialogues were really too simple that I suppose really made the story of lesser impact. But in reality, this kind of strategy really appeals to the viewers. And the dialogues were overlapped by the good performance of the actors that it is not problematic anymore if it was more figurative or not – as the saying goes: Action speaks louder than words. As a whole, I can say that The Notebook is a very enticing film that is not perfect yet is something that is worth watching for. IV. The Book versus the Movie (Points of view, Characters, Musical Scoring, Actors, Symbols and Metaphors) Let us now start to compare specifically some points of the book as presented in the movie. Let us start from the point of view used by the two. In the novel, the point of view is more of the first person point of view. Noah was narrating the story as if he was talking to the reader. He acts as the story teller. Conversely, the film puts Noah within the story. He is no more a storyteller, he is part of it. The movie made Noah still narrates the story but this time to a character that is also within the story. He is not narrating to the viewers. The movie used the third person point of view. When it comes to visualization, the novel is very detailed and the events, the setting and the physical traits of the character were spoon-fed to its readers. The only problem is that, even if it is detailed the perception and orientation of the readers on what the author tries to describe may vary. While on the film, the director provides the viewers a standard visual representation of the events, the setting and the physical attributes of the characters. Therefore, confusion is precluded. The disadvantage of the film however, is that it becomes subjective on the part of the director on what angle he is going to look at. Fro example, the part wherein the two elder lovers were dancing (this is near the end part) the camera took a close up shot. There are some viewers who might want to see the normal shot rather than the close up shot in order to see how closely they are with each other as they dance or maybe they prefer to see the body movements rather than the facial expression. Maybe the viewers and the director may have different focuses they want to look at but then again, the film imposes what the viewer must see. This becomes a limitation now for the film. It limits the viewers on their free imagination and sometimes it influences how the viewers will get the impression over the story. The development of the characters were more demonstrated and emphasized in the book than on the film. As a matter of fact, the maturity of the characters in the film was barely shown. This is perhaps, because of the very little details presented in the film when the two lovers fell apart. There is very little explanation of what happened to them during that span of time. In contrary, the novel was able to develop maturity on the characters because the events that had happened after their break up were clearly stated. That makes the novel more favorable than the film. Talking about the characters, both medium had made the two main characters very strong specially the young generation. But the elder generation was not overshadowed because their scenes were very intense also. Flat characters I guess were the nurses in the nursing home but the novel has given them more significance rather than on the film. Actually, the film made the nurses like parsley on a dinner plate. They were like more of props rather than characters. I consider the picturesque sunsets and green fields shown in the movie as extrinsic metaphor of the story. It suggests that their love story is very beautiful and colorful. Enhanced by natural calamities (the struggles they’ve been through), their love manages to be as awaiting as the sunrise during the sunset and as fragrant as the smell of the green fields. The intrinsic metaphor I can say is the notebook itself. The notebook is a symbol of their love for each other. The written story in the notebook will forever remain written there even if the inks fades out, traces of the words will still be there. Just like their love, even if the memories had faded, the feeling will forever remain in their hearts. The novel has the same extrinsic and intrinsic metaphors. The difference lies only on the mode of presenting them. I sensed a very little irony in both medium. Maybe it is because every element of the film supports each other towards a certain goal – that is to emphasize a melodramatic type of mood. It was as if the story was made merely to make people cry and fall in love. The only irony that I can consider is the things that happened in their lives. I can say the two lovers are victims of the irony of faith. Even if they had been apart fro so long and had decided to live a new life without each other, at the end they were able to get back on each other’s arms. Towards their twilight years, the irony of faith tested them once more by giving them health problems that tested their relationship. They were still able to end up happily-ever-after but it had to be on the tragic road of death. Music is one advantage of the film over the book. Mickey-mousing is observable in the film. But the effect of it becomes positive. The music was very effective on supporting the intensity of the scenes. The sadder the music is, the more the viewers get carried away and start to cry over the dramatic scenes. The editing of the film was very much polished that I guess, it is because of too much polishing that some important scenes were cut off. Montage is used to present what happened during the war and the things happened to the characters when they were apart from each other. It was somehow effective because it shortens the story but still retains its essence. But it is also problematic because it is too short to cover the development of the characters. Mostly, the transitions of events were made as straight cuts. It was somewhat blunt but I can’t suggest better transition for this film rather than straight cuts. Maybe it could’ve been better if fade out and fade in were used on the transition of the scenes of the elder characters to the younger generation. This I think would better demonstrate the flashback. I just want to reiterate that edited parts of the novel which were not present in the film maybe important aspects of the story but is very impossible to be covered in a two-hour movie. It is subjective to the director who is interpreting the novel to translate the story into a motion picture. For the sake of reacting to Cassevettes’ movie per se, it is fairly done and he was able to touch my heart by the way he narrated the story. References: Read More