THE MOVIE

Awards won: MTV's Best Kiss - unfortunately, I think I missed the best movie kiss of 2004 because I was folding my laundry. Will my life go on?

It has taken me 3 days to watch the movie version of THE NOTEBOOK, and sadly the book is way better. I didn't think that was possible, but the movie really was that terrible.

One thing that I am really bothered by about this movie is that Allie, as an older person, has dementia instead of Alzheimer's (which she has in the book). The thing is, with dementia, she would remember some things instead of nothing at all - movie-Allie was so clueless about everything. She wasn't ever frustrated about not knowing anything about herself, which was REALLY frustrating for me. If I don't know who I am, but I seem to be okay with, I hope that I'm drunk or on really great drugs. Movie-Allie didn't seem to be on either...

The focus of the book is when Allie and Noah meet again, while the movie jumps around a lot. It sort of drove me crazy watching to "kids" pretending to fight and act like grown-ups, though I did enjoy watching them undress before they did the nasty at age 17. Each of them was standing on a different side of the blanket and the camera would pan back and forth as each of them took off an article of clothing. It wasn't very romantic at all, but it did make me laugh!

The movie took place in South Carolina during the 1940's, which is totally fine, but the actors all slipped in and out of Southern accents. It was quite entertaining because the accents would be used for a while and then disappear.

Also, would a Southern belle really go to school at Sarah Lawrence in the 40's? I thought that she would go somewhere a bit more Southern...who knows. But apparently in the 40's in Charleston black couples and white couples would dance together in fancy supper clubs. Who knew that segregation didn't exist in supper clubs?

I thought that I was going to make it through the movie without wanting to barf until the last 3 minutes of the movie. That's when Noah slipped into Allie's room in the nursing home where she REMEMBERED him (a bit suspect), but okay. So they start talking, and Allie asks him what is going to happen and they talk about love going on. Then she says something about how she wishes that their love could take them away together. Guess what? It does...sorry if I spoiled it for you, but I couldn't believe that they both actually pass away when they look so healthy! I guess that's the power of true love...

As a random side-note - C3 came into the room at the end and watched and laughed with me, which was good.

Final thoughts: THE NOTEBOOK was a silly book and a stupid movie. Some parts were entertaining, others were snort-worthy, while some were just down-right dumb. It was not a terribly realistic movie or book, but at least I got a bit of an ab workout by laughing at both!