THE MOVIE MYSTIC
The Notebook

Sometimes, a great love...

For the last several years, there has been a fascinating trend in love stories that I first detailed in my discussion of Sleepless in Seattle in my book:

“I have always found this to be one of the most uplifting and beautiful love stories I have ever seen. For everyone who has loved and lost, the powerful message of this movie is a great comfort and inspiration.

“Without saying it specifically, it raises a fascinating issue about soul mates. What if we don’t have just one?

“I know that will raise some hackles with other incurable romantics such as myself, but it’s a question worth asking, particularly in light of the enormous popularity of both Cast Away and this film.

“In Sleepless, Sam loved his wife, had it perfect and she died. He was sure that he could never “grow a new heart.” He was wrong. How is that? Are we not saying to ourselves here that the concept of just having one soul mate may indeed be true for some but not for others? True love, like lightning, can strike more than once. That’s a beautiful and encouraging message for anyone who has loved and lost.”

The Notebook presents the other side of that coin...

Sometimes, a great love... seems just fated... The minute two people lock eyes, the tumblers instantaneously fall into place and they just know they want to be together forever. Sadly, for many of those couples the “forever” only lasts for days or weeks or even a few years, but it does end (such as in The Way We Were and others). For a few people, however, “forever” means exactly that... obstacles, challenges, time and distance be damned – the love survives and blazes brightly throughout their lives.

It is that fated and inevitable “forever” kind of love that breathes passion into the core of the beautiful and poignant film version of The Notebook, based on Nicholas Sparks’ novel.

Set primarily in the 1940s, the film’s love story revolves around two teenagers (Noah and Ally) who meet and fall in love (maybe this phrase should be changed to “rise in love”?) during one idyllic summer, only to have Ally’s parents split them apart. They both go their separate ways until...

I can’t tell any more of the story without ruining some of the surprises in the film and that I don’t want to do; however, there is one aspect of the film that I do indeed want to highlight. By doing so, I will be revealing something about the plot. Although it is something that most of you will connect very quickly in the film anyway, I do want to caution those of you who want nothing to be revealed that you should stop reading right here!... and maybe save this alert until after you see the film.

OK?... for those of you still with us, there is something unique and powerfully moving about the “bookends” of the film. James Garner and Gena Rowlands (who is actually the mother of the director of the film) play the elderly version of the young lovers in the film. Garner is reading the story of the two young lovers to Ally in a rest home because Ally suffers from dementia and cannot even remember who he is or who her children are. Although their relationship is not revealed immediately, it doesn’t take long to figure it out and the poignancy of the situation provides a powerful subtext to the love story.

More often than not, screen love stories focus on the “getting there” but very rarely illuminate the “being there” and even more rarely – the “having been there.” There seem to be a lot of people who are enamored with falling (rising) in love but somewhat lost at the “maintaining it” part, yes? (I hear a lot of you out there murmuring – “a lot of people”? – it’s a damn epidemic!)

What makes this aspect of The Notebook so notable and so laudable is that the pure sexual chemistry between the young lovers is so fierce and overpowering for them both that it is wonderful indeed to actually witness how that facet of their love evolves as they enter their “twilight years.” This is the rare film that really shows a wider panoply of love, from youth through some maturity and then to old age and that odyssey is one of the many reasons why I recommend the film so highly.

On a weekend when Spider-Man-2 broke attendance records everywhere (and is good fun, by the way) and Fahrenheit 9/11 continued its controversial and torrid run (more than $60 million in 10 days), it was wonderful to “put in the clutch” and watch a truly old-fashioned (in the best sense of that word) and engrossing love story for two hours on a hot July afternoon, or anytime when it comes out on DVD.

For those of you who are attracted to the film, I think you will have a wonderful time.

Stephen Simon has produced such films as Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come, has just produced and directed INDIGO, and wrote The Force is With You: Mystical Movie Messages That Inspire Our Lives, published by Walsch Books/Hampton Roads. He also co-founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle www.spiritualcinemacircle.com/ Stephen welcomes your comments by email at Stephen@Movingmessagesmedia.com)