100 Things Challenge 2: The Notebook
Jul. 4th, 2012 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
logans_girl2001I have no idea why I resisted watching this movie for so long.
With a movie like this, I tend to eventually get spoiled but somehow I managed to not for this one, beyond it's a tear-jerker. I had the twist figured out from the moment we meet the two main characters, even though they're elderly.
This movie is a beautiful and poignant love story.
It starts with Duke being introduced to Allie. She isn't sure she wants to spend the day listening to Duke read her a story but then changes her mind.
Duke begins with when Noah and Allie first met, in 1940 at a fair during the summer.
Allie is rich and Noah is not. Allie's mother doesn't like that her daughter is in love with a blue collar man. Allie and Noah don't care. But her mother won't allow her to 'ruin her life' by marrying 'beneath her station'. So Allie's parents decide to leave early. Allie isn't given time to say good-bye to Noah.
Noah writes Allie a letter a day for an entire year. Three hundred sixty-five letters. Allies' mother intercepts them. Noah thinks Allie decided he wasn't 'good enough' and stops writing after sending one more to say good-bye.
Noah joins the Army after Pearl Harbor. When he comes home his father hands him a check and suggests he use it and his GI Bill money to buy his dream house, an old plantation where he took Allie the night before her parents took her home (and where they almost had sex).
Allie becomes a nurse's aid and meets Lon Hammond. He's in a body cast when he first asks her for a date. Once he's healed he finds her again and asks her out, this time she says yes.
Her parents approve, of course because he's rich, and he eventually asks her to marry him which she says yes to.
Meanwhile, Noah has finished rebuilding the plantation and gets his picture in the local paper.
Allie sees it and goes to see him.
They begin reconnecting and one thing leads to another and they have sex. Allie is amazed and wants to do it all the time.
Noah gives her back her painting, I think she stopped because of the war, and one morning while she's painting her mother shows up and admits that she once fell in love with a blue collar man herself but she chose financial security over love. She also gives Allie the letters from Noah.
Lon shows up and Allie realizes she has a decision to make. She loves both men but can only be truly happy with one of them.
In between these scenes are scenes from the present. It comes out that Duke is sick, not life or death but he is getting older. And that Allie has dementia and doesn't remember Duke or their kids, who show up with grandkids in tow.
At the end of the day, Duke takes Allie back to her room where he's set a romantic, candlelit table for two. He tells her the rest of the story: Allie chose Noah over Lon and Allie 'comes back to him' long enough to say she loves him.
After that Allie's 'gone' again and Duke, who is really Noah, is heart broken watching his wife have a panic attack at 'the strange man' in her room.
Either that night or a few days later, he has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital. While he's there Allie is put in a room with other dementia patients who have no one to help them remember.
After he comes back, he sneaks out of his room and into Allie's after looking through some pictures and reading the inscription page of the notebook he was reading from. It says "Read this to me and I'll come back to you". I'm guessing she wrote the book, titled "The Story of Our Lives", when she was first told of her dementia.
When he sneaks into Allie's room she seems to know who he is and asks if their love is strong enough to create a miracle. He asks what she means and she says she wants them to die together. He says he thinks it's enough and lies down in bed with her.
The movie ends with a nurse coming in to check on Allie and finding them, in each other's arms, dead.
Yes, I cried. And was reminded of a SGA story I once read. It ended the same way.
This is a movie I'd watch again. I definitely recommend it. In fact, I think I'll see if I can find the book.
Mr. Popper's Penguins
The Notebook
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The Woman in Black
Despicable Me: Minion Madness
Footloose (remake)
Gods and Generals
Master and Commander
Max Payne
Nothing (burned copy)
Source Code (blu-ray)
Stitch! The Movie
Queen of the Damned
The Vow
The Losers
Transformers
Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen (blu-ray)
Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon (blu-ray)
Captain America
Thor
The Guardian
Feed
Green Lantern (blu-ray)
Real Steel (blu-ray)
The Green Hornet
White Nights
Whiteout
Devil
Babylon AD
Beastly
Blue Crush
Bridge to Terabithia
Century Hotel
Cube
Cube 2: Hypercube
Despicable Me
Double Jeopardy
Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
Flushed Away
Ghost Rider
GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Imposter
Kiss the Girls
Made of Honor
Right at your Door
Untraceable
X-men Origins: Wolverine (blu-ray)
27 Dresses
A Walk in the Clouds
Avatar
Con Air (burned copy)
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
Contact (burned copy)
Dazed and Confused
Drive Me Crazy
Drumline
Eagle Eye
Empire Records
Enemy Mine
Ever After
Freaky Friday (Jamie Lee Curtis version)
Freejack
GI Blues
Goonies (burned copy)
Hancock
Hitch
I am Legend
I am Sam
Independence Day (burned copy)
Just My Luck
Legally Blonde
Lilo & Stitch
Lost in Space (burned copy)
Maid in Manhattan
Monsters Inc.
National Treasure
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
Nothing to Lose
Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Twelve
Overboard
Raise Your Voice
Serenity
Session 9
Seven Years in Tibet
Sleepover
Sliding Doors
Summer School
SWAT
Sweet November
The Back-up Plan
The Bone Collector
The Fifth Element
The Iron Giant
The King and I
The Replacements
The Watcher
Top Gun
Varsity Blues
Volcano (burned copy)
Walking Tall
Wall-E
West Side Story
Where the Heart Is (Natalie Portman version)
The Forgotten
With a movie like this, I tend to eventually get spoiled but somehow I managed to not for this one, beyond it's a tear-jerker. I had the twist figured out from the moment we meet the two main characters, even though they're elderly.
This movie is a beautiful and poignant love story.
It starts with Duke being introduced to Allie. She isn't sure she wants to spend the day listening to Duke read her a story but then changes her mind.
Duke begins with when Noah and Allie first met, in 1940 at a fair during the summer.
Allie is rich and Noah is not. Allie's mother doesn't like that her daughter is in love with a blue collar man. Allie and Noah don't care. But her mother won't allow her to 'ruin her life' by marrying 'beneath her station'. So Allie's parents decide to leave early. Allie isn't given time to say good-bye to Noah.
Noah writes Allie a letter a day for an entire year. Three hundred sixty-five letters. Allies' mother intercepts them. Noah thinks Allie decided he wasn't 'good enough' and stops writing after sending one more to say good-bye.
Noah joins the Army after Pearl Harbor. When he comes home his father hands him a check and suggests he use it and his GI Bill money to buy his dream house, an old plantation where he took Allie the night before her parents took her home (and where they almost had sex).
Allie becomes a nurse's aid and meets Lon Hammond. He's in a body cast when he first asks her for a date. Once he's healed he finds her again and asks her out, this time she says yes.
Her parents approve, of course because he's rich, and he eventually asks her to marry him which she says yes to.
Meanwhile, Noah has finished rebuilding the plantation and gets his picture in the local paper.
Allie sees it and goes to see him.
They begin reconnecting and one thing leads to another and they have sex. Allie is amazed and wants to do it all the time.
Noah gives her back her painting, I think she stopped because of the war, and one morning while she's painting her mother shows up and admits that she once fell in love with a blue collar man herself but she chose financial security over love. She also gives Allie the letters from Noah.
Lon shows up and Allie realizes she has a decision to make. She loves both men but can only be truly happy with one of them.
In between these scenes are scenes from the present. It comes out that Duke is sick, not life or death but he is getting older. And that Allie has dementia and doesn't remember Duke or their kids, who show up with grandkids in tow.
At the end of the day, Duke takes Allie back to her room where he's set a romantic, candlelit table for two. He tells her the rest of the story: Allie chose Noah over Lon and Allie 'comes back to him' long enough to say she loves him.
After that Allie's 'gone' again and Duke, who is really Noah, is heart broken watching his wife have a panic attack at 'the strange man' in her room.
Either that night or a few days later, he has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital. While he's there Allie is put in a room with other dementia patients who have no one to help them remember.
After he comes back, he sneaks out of his room and into Allie's after looking through some pictures and reading the inscription page of the notebook he was reading from. It says "Read this to me and I'll come back to you". I'm guessing she wrote the book, titled "The Story of Our Lives", when she was first told of her dementia.
When he sneaks into Allie's room she seems to know who he is and asks if their love is strong enough to create a miracle. He asks what she means and she says she wants them to die together. He says he thinks it's enough and lies down in bed with her.
The movie ends with a nurse coming in to check on Allie and finding them, in each other's arms, dead.
Yes, I cried. And was reminded of a SGA story I once read. It ended the same way.
This is a movie I'd watch again. I definitely recommend it. In fact, I think I'll see if I can find the book.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The Woman in Black
Despicable Me: Minion Madness
Footloose (remake)
Gods and Generals
Master and Commander
Max Payne
Nothing (burned copy)
Source Code (blu-ray)
Stitch! The Movie
Queen of the Damned
The Vow
The Losers
Transformers
Transformers 2: Revenge of The Fallen (blu-ray)
Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon (blu-ray)
Captain America
Thor
The Guardian
Feed
Green Lantern (blu-ray)
Real Steel (blu-ray)
The Green Hornet
White Nights
Whiteout
Devil
Babylon AD
Beastly
Blue Crush
Bridge to Terabithia
Century Hotel
Cube
Cube 2: Hypercube
Despicable Me
Double Jeopardy
Farscape: The Peacekeeper Wars
Flushed Away
Ghost Rider
GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra
Imposter
Kiss the Girls
Made of Honor
Right at your Door
Untraceable
X-men Origins: Wolverine (blu-ray)
27 Dresses
A Walk in the Clouds
Avatar
Con Air (burned copy)
Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen
Contact (burned copy)
Dazed and Confused
Drive Me Crazy
Drumline
Eagle Eye
Empire Records
Enemy Mine
Ever After
Freaky Friday (Jamie Lee Curtis version)
Freejack
GI Blues
Goonies (burned copy)
Hancock
Hitch
I am Legend
I am Sam
Independence Day (burned copy)
Just My Luck
Legally Blonde
Lilo & Stitch
Lost in Space (burned copy)
Maid in Manhattan
Monsters Inc.
National Treasure
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
Nothing to Lose
Ocean's Eleven
Ocean's Twelve
Overboard
Raise Your Voice
Serenity
Session 9
Seven Years in Tibet
Sleepover
Sliding Doors
Summer School
SWAT
Sweet November
The Back-up Plan
The Bone Collector
The Fifth Element
The Iron Giant
The King and I
The Replacements
The Watcher
Top Gun
Varsity Blues
Volcano (burned copy)
Walking Tall
Wall-E
West Side Story
Where the Heart Is (Natalie Portman version)
The Forgotten
