The Notebook

I wonder why everybody was gaga over this movie. Supposedly it was "so romantic," "so moving," it would make me cry, ("even made my dad cry," one friend told me), it was the "greatest love story" in modern film. Sure. What are we, desperate for romance?

I remember so well that conversation with my girlfriend when I remarked on the lack of great romance in films these days. Where's the passion? Where's our Clark Gable, our "Gone with the Wind"?

"You should see 'The Notebook.' It even made my dad cry."

Well, now I've seen it and, apart from appreciating the quite lovely Rachel McAdams, I didn't enjoy it. A great romance has to have conflict. These two young people fell in love smoothly enough, but there wasn't much in the way of passion, of tormented desire. They really didn't have any conflict. They were happy-go-lucky. Then what happens? Sure, sure, they're separated - it's a plot twist and causes a temporary delay to the relationship, but does that cause conflict within their love? No. The love doesn't suffer from it, there's no doubt they still love each other just the same. It's so obvious that they're going to get back together anyway, since the whole time you've got the two of them together in old age narrating the entire story. So where's the intensity? Where's the emotion? Where's the heat?

Hell, I think there was more passionate romance in some of those old "Dawson's Creek" episodes where Pacey is pining for Joey but can't make a move because she's Dawson's girl. And everybody said that was corny - but they liked "The Notebook"?