I am going to state what might be a highly unpopular opinion: The Notebook (2004) is not a happy movie.  At best, it could be described as bittersweet, with equal parts bitter and sweet.  Then again, that is life for you.  One of my favorite and oft repeated Catholic quotes comes from Pope Benedict XVI, “The world offers you comfort.  But you were not made for comfort.  You were made for greatness.”  When comfort comes our way, it can be a blessing, but one should not strive for it.  Instead, be prepared for the struggle and meet it because God is with you in that, too.  Seeing life from this perspective is a good way of reading today’s film.  Further, it shows that by doing so, miracles are possible.

What would also be somewhat of a miracle would be describing The Notebook to you as it is presented, or without spoiling it from the beginning.  If you have any familiarity with it, even without seeing it all the way through, you might expect young Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) and Allison “Allie” Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) to start the proceedings.  Instead, we get an old man going by the sobriquet Duke (James Garner) visiting an old woman (Gena Rowlands) in a nursing home.  She has dementia, but the nurses bring him into her room, telling her that she will like this man.  That is the first of many indicators throughout this film that they are the aged versions of Allie and Noah.  There, I said it.  It also makes it easier to provide a cogent synopsis.  From here, with some breaks throughout, Noah reads from the eponymous record of the story of his relationship with Allie, which we later learn is something she wrote to help her remember him.  As sweet sounding as that is, their first meeting did not go well.  It is 1940 and the well-to-do Hamiltons are summering in the small seaside village of Seabrook, South Carolina.  While at a fair, she is spotted by Noah, and of course, it is love at first sight for him.  Still, he has to do some convincing to get her to go on a date with the lowly lumberyard worker.  Though she promises to go out with him after he hangs from a crossbeam on the Ferris wheel, she later brushes of the stress induced vow.  It takes his best friend, Fin (Kevin Connolly), to set up Allie with Noah.  From there, they carry on a torrid romance during the summer months.  Allie enjoys hanging out on his side of the tracks, if you get the meaning, including being appreciated by Noah’s father, Frank Calhoun (Sam Shepard).  As for Allie’s parents, while they are gracious enough to invite Noah to their summer home, they view him as a poor outsider.  Though John Hamilton (David Thornton), Allie’s father, dismisses it as a seasonal fling, Anne Hamilton (Joan Allen), sees trouble with the young lovers.  As the Hamiltons time in Seabrook is coming to a close, Noah takes Allie to a decrepit old home on the water that he promises her to buy one day.  Pledges are made to each other, they admit their love, and they nearly have sex.  Before that happens, Fin interrupts them, saying that Allie’s parents have the police out looking for them.  Allie and Noah rush back to the Hamilton residence where Noah overhears them arguing about the nature of Allie’s relationship with the wood worker.  Before the shouting dies down, Noah heads for the door.  Allie comes out after him, but he is unsure of the wisdom of them continuing a relationship.  Besides, she is going away to college in New York City in the Fall, meaning they will be far apart.  She asks that he come north with her, but he remains noncommittal.  In short, their status is in question despite the depth of their feelings.  The next morning, Anne informs her daughter they are leaving a week early.  Allie tries and fails to find Noah before they depart.  She does locate Fin, who says that Noah had been distraught but will try to convey her message that she still cares for Noah.  For a year following, Noah writes Allie every day.  Because Anne does not approve, she intercepts all the letters, and they all go unanswered.  With that, she heads to school and he and Fin join the army during World War II.  While he is fighting, she volunteers as a nurse.  It is in this capacity that she meets Captain Lon Hammond Jr. (James Marsden).  He is severely injured but he asks her on a date all the same.  She requests that he get better first, and when he does, he persists.  What is more, he is a rich, Southern lawyer.  Hence, her parents are thrilled when he proposes.  As for Noah, after seeing Fin die in his arms in the war, he returns to Seabrook and Frank, who has sold his house to help his son purchase the ruin of Noah’s dreams.  When Noah is not remodeling, then turning down offers on the rebuilt house, he thinks of Allie.  She has not forgotten about him, and when his picture appears in the paper in front of his rebuilt home, on the day she is trying on wedding dresses no less, she faints.  Because their relationship remains unresolved, she tells Lon that she has to take care of unfinished business and returns to Seabrook.  This is when the famous scene of them in the rain happens when he tells her about all the missives he wrote her.  As a result, their love is rekindled and they spend the next few days in bed.  Eventually, Anne finds her daughter, giving Allie all the withheld mail.  Anne has also come with Lon, and now Allie must choose between the two.  It is Noah’s words that convince her, and this brings the story to end for the two in the nursing home.  It sparks Allie’s memory, and for a moment, she remembers Noah.  Unfortunately, it only lasts a few minutes and she violently pushes away a man who is now a stranger to him.  The following morning, she is moved to a more intensive care ward, and he suffers a heart attack that requires hospitalization.  He gets out shortly thereafter, and that night visits her in her room.  She recognizes him and they fall asleep in each other’s arms, never to rise again.

There is a sweetness to longtime lovers dying in each other’s arms as they do in The Notebook, no matter the setting.  The two share the kind of love that can only come from meeting that one person God had in mind from the day He created you.  Even with speaking to the theological aspect of such a phenomenon, I worry that I am romanticizing it too much.  Yes, there is romance in this movie, but I am not sure I would call it romantic.  The popular view of such feelings is that everything will always be easy.  The truth is that any relationship is going to be challenging.  Noah clearly articulates this when Allie is stuck between her fiancé and her first love.  She does not want to hurt either man because neither are deserving of it.  In telling her that she must choose, Noah reminds her that while they might bicker as they are in that moment, it is part of the challenges that they overcome together.  God wants to do the same for us if we let Him.  In such moments, it is also best to rely on Him.  To be sure, it is not an easy decision for Allie, who genuinely cares about making the right one.  Given that Noah is there for her even while she suffers from dementia demonstrates that she made the correct one.  His actions also highlight the miracle that is this kind of love, a word that is used a few times in the film.  Their children try to get him to come home, but he tells them that his place is with his wife, caring for her.  Others question his persistence in reading to her, saying she will never recover.  His response is that today is a good day for a miracle.  Everything he did in his life, from remodeling the house to moving into the nursing home, underscores the kind of sacrificial love God has for us.  Since He did sacrifice for us and we are called to emulate Him, we know it is a miracle.

What could also be called a miracle, though of a much less profound nature, is the fact that I had not seen The Notebookuntil just before writing this review.  The stereotype about it is that it is a “chick flick,” which is ridiculous.  As I stated in the introduction, I am less convinced of its merits as a romance film.  There are other reasons to watch it, and I hope I made them clear with this review.