The Notebook

Maybe not the greatest love story ever told, but certainly one of the best told. If you are a fan of the before and after love story, this is one of the best.

Director Nick Cassavetes uses just the right amount of sentiment and art to spin this tale of who-they-were and who-they-are-now. You may find yourself drawn in so tight to this wonderfully played out story that you are tempted to fast forward. Don't. Take it all in like fine warm rain.

Jame Garner (Maverick series, Rockford Files series, and Murphy's Romance) plays the role of an older gentleman reading a story from a notebook to an aging Gena Rowlands (I don't even know where to start listing her great roles) who's memory comes and goes. As the story is read, it is played out by a second cast.

I know, I know, there is no first and second cast. There are however, two stories unfolding as this movie progresses. Therefore, I employ a concept of first and second cast, and assume you know what I'm talking about. Okay?

So, first cast is in a nursing home, and second cast acts out the story being told by first cast.

Bottom line, both casts do a super job, and the writer and directer did a very smart job of keeping the stories just close enough, yet just far enough apart, to keep this movie interesting. Both of the stories. And when they come together near the end, as predictable as we think it will be, it is done with class, art, and good movie magic.

Ryan Gosling (Remember the Titans, and Lars and the Girl) plays the young man in the story opposite Rachel McAdams (Mean Girls, and The Wedding Crashers). These two have more chemistry than DuPont.

Watch this movie with someone who will not hog the tissues.