Product Description

Behind every great love is a great story. Two teenagers from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love during one summer together, but are tragically forced apart. When they reunite 7 years later, their passionate romance is rekindled, forcing one of them to choose between true love and class order.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #508 in DVD
• Brand: Warner Brothers
• Released on: 2005-02-08
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dimensions: .38 pounds
• Running time: 124 minutes

Features

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• AC-3; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC

Amazon.com
When you consider that old-fashioned tearjerkers are an endangered species in Hollywood, a movie like The Notebook can be embraced without apology. Yes, it's syrupy sweet and clogged with clichés, and one can only marvel at the irony of Nick Cassavetes directing a weeper that his late father John--whose own films were devoid of saccharine sentiment--would have sneered at. Still, this touchingly impassioned and great-looking adaptation of the popular Nicholas Sparks novel has much to recommend, including appealing young costars (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) and appealing old costars (James Garner and Gena Rowlands, the director's mother) playing the same loving couple in (respectively) early 1940s and present-day North Carolina. He was poor, she was rich, and you can guess the rest; decades later, he's unabashedly devoted, and she's drifting into the memory-loss of senile dementia. How their love endured is the story preserved in the titular notebook that he reads to her in their twilight years. The movie's open to ridicule, but as a delicate tearjerker it works just fine. Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember were also based on Sparks novels, suggesting a triple-feature that hopeless romantics will cherish. --Jeff Shannon

Also on the Disc
The Platinum Series DVD includes a generous selection of bonus features including four making-of featurettes and Rachel McAdams' original screen test. The 11-1/2 minute "All in the Family" featurette examines director Nick Cassavetes' directing style and edgy sensibility and features commentary by Nick Cassavetes as well as lots of interview footage from a host of cast members including Sam Shepard, Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, and Gena Rowlands. "Nicholas Sparks: A Simple Story, Well Told" is a 6-1/2 minute look at the unassuming author and his literary success and "Southern Exposure" details the processes of locating The Notebook in Southern Carolina and re-creating a bygone era. "Casting Ryan and Rachel" marvels at the instant chemistry present between Ryan Gosling and McAdams. Twelve deleted and alternate scenes (totaling 28-1/2 minutes) are offered with great optional commentary by editor Alan Heim about the collaborative and sometimes difficult process of editing as well as the reasoning behind specific cuts. Nick Cassavetes' director commentary offers insight into his commitment to creating a realistic world in which idealistic love flourishes as well as his down-to-earth attitude as a director. Novelist Nicholas Sparks' commentary offers a wealth of information about the writing of the book, the spirit of the story, and the openness to change resulting from his perception of movies and novels as distinct art forms.. --Tami Horiuchi

From The New Yorker
Another story from the sap-filled pen of Nicholas Sparks ("Message in a Bottle," "A Walk to Remember") is given the familiar golden-hued treatment by the director Nick Cassavetes and the screenwriter Jeremy Leven. This love story, told through flashbacks to the nineteen-forties, concerns a woman (Gena Rowlands) who is suffering from Alzheimer's and the attempt by her old flame (James Garner) to rekindle a memory of their romantic past. Their younger selves are played by Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, and their idealized love story is filled with clichés. Cassavetes unapologetically lifts romantic set pieces from earlier films like "On Golden Pond" and "East of Eden" in an attempt to rustle up some first-love tension, but the film is as bland and sentimental as a greeting card. -Bruce Diones
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker