The Notebook

The Notebook
Originally uploaded by Struthers.

If you need to score points with your girlfriend by going to a tear-jerking romantic movie and enjoying it, here's how:
Buy two tickets to Nick Cassavetes' film The Notebook, then visit your local bottle shop, and pick up a pocket sized bottle of your favourite booze.
The game that you'll be playing is simple; every time you recognise one of the planet sized cliches being thrown at you, take a swig.
Here's a few you can't miss:
There's a rich girl and a poor boy. They're meant to be together, but outside forces threaten to tear them apart. He (Ryan Gossling) doesn't fit in her (Rachel McAdams) high-class world, and her over-bearing mother (Joan Allen) won't see her daughter fall in love with a boy from the other side of the tracks.
As their one perfect summer draws to a close the couple fight, and the girl is dragged back to her upper-class world. He writes her every day for a year apologising, but alas the mother again intervenes, as does WW2, and a tremendously bad battle scene where his best-buddy dies in his arms.
You can make your own list, but chances are you'll get through that bottle pretty quickly, so do your best to stay alert. You'll have plenty of comforting to do when the lights come up as the second half really steps up a gear and you could be drowned in a sea of sentimentality and grand gestures of love. Your behavior here could determine the course of the rest of the evening.
Yes, the scenes with James Garner and Gena Rowlands lift this exercise to an acceptable level, and Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gossling have a great chemistry and aren't bad to look at, but you will need the booze. It's not terrible by any means, but there's nothing great about it either.
The Notebook rates 2 and a 1/2 stars.