What if the truest sign of love isn’t a diamond or a vow, but telling the same story every day to the person who lived it with you, even after they’ve forgotten? The Notebook is a love story, but it’s really about what happens to love when memory is gone. Most love stories are about the beginning; this one is about the end. The Notebook has become a true classic; it propels you with powerful questions: Can love last a lifetime? I give this classic a 10/10 for the endless emotional ride we cannot yet say.
This movie works on two levels: first, as a big, dramatic love story of young love, and second, as Toxic? Yes. Entertaining? Absolutely. A Model for Real-Life Love? Please, for the love of all that don’t do what they’re doing. Watch it for the intense drama, the tears, the sheer absurdity of it all. Don’t watch it for relationship advice, unless your goal is to get a restraining order wrapped in a love letter. This movie’s structure is its biggest strength. It starts in the present, in a nursing home. This entire story is being read in the present day by an elderly man named Duke, and we soon realize that Duke is Noah as he has aged, and the woman, Allie, has aged too. She has severe Alzheimer’s disease and cannot remember him or their life together. The story he reads takes us back to the 1940s.
They are very different—he is poor while she is wealthy, and only visiting for the summer. Their first meeting was at a carnival. He is immediately captivated by her and boldly asks her out from the seat of a Ferris wheel. She initially resists his loud, unpolished style. I give this scene a 5/10 for drama, 0/10 for healthy boundaries. The real hero of this scene is the unnamed Ferris wheel operator who didn’t panic and just kept the ride moving. But ultimately, they fell head over heels for each other. How cute! They definitely match their equal level of craziness. Their love is loud, messy, and full of big, unexplainable feelings. They share memories from that summer, like dancing on the street, lying together in the middle of an empty road, and Noah even taking Allie to an old, abandoned house called the Windsor Plantation.
There, he tells her, “I’m gonna buy that house, and I’m gonna restore it, and I’m gonna marry you in it.”
Kind of creepy, no? Or is it just me? You would imagine that this is the end of a crazy, unbelievable love story, but it’s not. Allie’s sophisticated parents, especially her mother, strongly disapproved of Noah. They see him as unsuitable for their daughter. At the end of the summer, Allie’s family suddenly leaves Seabrook. Noah and Allie have a huge, heartbreaking fight before she goes, and they end things, but Noah promises to write to her. He writes her a total of 365 letters, one every day, for a year.
Her mother intercepts and hides all of them. Believing Noah has forgotten her, a heartbroken Allie tries to move on. Noah is devastated, and he leaves to fight in World War II. When he returns, he buys the Windsor Plantation and, true to his word, restores it by hand, clinging to the memory of Allie. Real question for Noah, in today’s world, just accept you got ghosted, buddy.
Allie becomes a nurse during the war in a military hospital where she meets Lon Hammond, a young, handsome, and deeply kind army captain from a wealthy Southern Family. He is the spitting image of a dream man.
After a classic romance, Lon proposes to Allie in a romantic, elegant scene. She accepts. He represents stability, deep affection, and a secure future. She loves him, and they are happy.
Just weeks before her wedding, she’s getting fitted for a wedding gown, and Allie sees a photo in the newspaper of Noah standing in front of the beautifully restored Windsor Plantation. ABSOLUTE CINEMA 10/10 for the way she reacted; she quite literally fainted. Realizing he’s kept their promise, all her old feelings overwhelm her. She drives back to Seabrook to see him. What are you doing, Allie? You’re engaged!
The connection between Noah and Allie is instantly reignited after seven years, they meet and Noah’s opening is like: something along the lines of
“Oh, hey. It’s you.” The love of my life, who never answered my 365 letters. I was just building you a house. No big deal, he definitely plays it cooler, but in the scene, you can definitely 100% feel the tension. They spend two intense days together. On the first day, Noah takes Allie boat paddling in a lake. The sun is out, the Swans are beautifully in the water, how romantic isn’t it? talking, arguing, and finally admitting they never stopped loving each other. As crazy as Noah is, there was one line he said that I could say word-for-word, and it has always stuck with me.
“So it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be really hard. We’re gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, you and me, every day.” How does one even formulate a sentence like this? This is the most beautiful piece of poetry. On the second day, Allie’s mother comes to disturb their peace and goes to Seabrook to pick her up and tell her that her fiancé, Lon, is on his way. Allie’s mother, seeing her daughter confused, finally gives her the bundle of 365 unopened letters Noah wrote. She reveals she hid them and admits she once made a similar choice for security over love, which she deeply regrets. She tells Allie,
“You have to follow your heart.”
Allie is torn apart. She loves Lon, who represents a wonderful future, comfort, safety, and a good man who deeply adores her. Noah represents her passionate past and soul, a different kind of life. A life of deep feeling, art, and a love that never really died.
This choice is painfully difficult because Lon is genuinely such a good candidate. He is not a villain; he’s a great man who truly loves her. This makes Allie’s decision not about picking a good guy over a bad guy, but about picking between different kinds of love and two different versions of herself.
Who would you choose?
To find out who she chooses, you can continue watching The Notebook on streaming services that are currently available: HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube TV, etc. Enjoy!
