The Notebook is a 2004 American romantic drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes, from a screenplay by Jeremy Leven and Jan Sardi, and based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as a young couple who fall in love in the 1940s. Their story is read from a notebook in the present day by an elderly man, telling the tale to a fellow nursing home resident.
The Notebook had its world premiere at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 20, 2004, and was theatrically released in the United States on June 25, 2004. Despite generally mixed reviews from critics, Gosling and McAdams were singled out for praise for their performances. The film was a sleeper hit at the box office, grossing $117 million against its $29 million budget, and has become a cult classic in the years since its release. On November 11, 2012, an extended version premiered on ABC Family with deleted scenes added back into the original storyline.
The film earned several accolades, including the MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss for Gosling and McAdams at the 2005 MTV Movie Awards. At the 11th Screen Actors Guild Awards, James Garner was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role and Gena Rowlands won Best Supporting Actress – Drama at the 9th Golden Satellite Awards.
TRAILER
PLOT
At a modern-day nursing home, the elderly Duke reads a romantic story from a notebook to a female patient:
In 1940, at a carnival in Seabrook Island, South Carolina, lumber mill worker Noah Calhoun sees 17-year-old heiress Allison "Allie" Hamilton, who is there for the summer with her parents. He pursues her and they begin a romance.
One night, Allie meets Noah's father, Frank Calhoun, who immediately likes her. However, when Noah meets her parents, they disapprove. That night, Noah takes Allie to the abandoned Windsor Plantation, telling her he will buy and restore it. As the sun sets, they start to make love for the first time. They are interrupted by Noah's friend Fin, who warns them Allie's parents sent the police out looking for her.
When Allie and Noah return to her parents' mansion, Allie's mother Anne makes it clear they are against the relationship and forbid her from seeing him. Noah leaves and Allie follows, they argue and she impulsively breaks up with him, and immediately regrets it.
The next morning, Anne announces they will be returning home to Charleston immediately. Allie tries to find Noah to apologize but is unsuccessful, so asks Fin to tell him she loves him. Noah rushes to Allie's when he gets the message but finds the gates locked.
Noah writes Allie every day for a year, but Allie's mother secretly intercepts the letters. When all 365 letters go unanswered, he stops writing and decides to move on. He and Fin enlist in the war and fight in the Battle of the Bulge where Fin is killed. Allie nurses in a hospital for wounded soldiers, meeting Captain Lon Hammond Jr., a young lawyer who comes from old Southern money. After a few years, they become engaged, to Allie's parents' delight.
Noah returns from the war to find that his father had sold their home so Noah can buy The Windsor Plantation. He convinces himself that if he restores it, Allie will come back to him. Once completing it, Noah resists selling it to anyone. As Allie tries on her wedding dress, she sees a newspaper photo of Noah standing in front of the renovated house and faints.
Allie's feelings for Noah come rushing back, so she asks Lon to take a solo trip before the wedding. Returning to Seabrook, she finds Noah living in their dream house. They rekindle and consummate their relationship. Noah tells Allie about the 365 letters and they realize, because of her mother's intentional secrecy, she never got them.
Days later, Anne appears to warn Allie that Lon has come to Seabrook. She also reveals that like her daughter, she once loved a lower-class young man in Seabrook and still wonders how changed their lives would have been if she had chosen differently. She gives Allie Noah's letters, telling her she hopes she chooses wisely.
Noah and Allie argue and he tells her to decide what she wants, as opposed to what her parents or Lon wants. She drives back to her hotel, sobbing and confused, and confesses her infidelity to Lon. Although he still wants her back, she follows her heart and returns to Noah.
In the present, the elderly woman is revealed to be Allie, now suffering from dementia. Duke is revealed to be Noah, who uses a pseudonym to not startle her in her disoriented state. The journal he reads to her she wrote during the early stages of her illness, detailing their romance and life together so he could help her come back to him. Noah has kept the promise to read it to her almost daily.
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