The Notebook (2004)

The film is a good tearjerker that respects the passion of young romance and the sentiment of enduring love in old age without pushing too hard. Ebert praises the strong performances, especially from the older cast of Gena Rowlands and James Garner, and the director's ability to find truth beyond soap opera.

The critic calls it premium romantic schlock but notes its appeal as counter-programming with sumptuous production values and a strong cast. The young leads Gosling and McAdams are singled out for their passionate and radiant performances that lift the film.

The unashamed tearjerker is a determined and often affecting romance that doesn't speak down to audiences, with a gifted cast and classical Hollywood textures deftly balanced by director Nick Cassavetes. Koehler highlights the strong performances from the young leads and the emotional force of the older couple's scenes.

The review notes the sticky-sweet script but highlights how Rowlands and Garner emerge with near-miraculous credibility in their scenes together amid the sentimental framing device.

The film is a conventional Deep South romance with strong period detail and an able cast, though hampered by length and editing issues; patience is partially rewarded by the performances.

The critic reflects on a 10th-anniversary screening of the film at the Savannah Film Festival, where a 35mm print was projected to an emotional audience. Gena Rowlands participated in a post-screening Q&A, and the piece notes the film's reputation as a notorious weepie while welcoming its reclamation.

The modern-day framing with its Alzheimer's plot is sentimental and oversimplified, but the young leads create magic with their intense, joyful romance.

It is a shameless, corny tear-jerker that nevertheless pushes all the right emotional buttons and benefits from uniformly excellent performances by a quality cast.

The film is a modest improvement on the novel but remains a three-hankie weepie with some awkward filmmaking and unpersuasive young leads. Dargis singles out the final scenes with James Garner and Gena Rowlands as breathtaking and heartbreaking.

The critic finds the film a painfully mawkish and derivative Titanic knockoff with a contrived Alzheimer's framing device and implausible romance plot. He singles out the over-the-top emotional manipulation and inauthentic Southern setting for complaint.

The critic dismisses the film as a ghastly, tedious piece of oldie slush tediously orchestrated by Cassavetes, centered on an implausible diary of romance read to a dementia patient. He highlights the preposterous plot twists and tasteful posturing of the leads.

The critic finds the film a glossy, overly sentimental adaptation of Nicholas Sparks that lacks grit or passion, turning a familiar class-crossed romance into syrupy melodrama with a framing device that induces a gag reflex.

The critic notes the film's heavy sentimentality and contrived structure around dementia but finds that the direction and performances make viewers care anyway. Gosling and McAdams stand out for bringing character and emotional depth to the leads.