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# The only thing noteworthy in ‘The Notebook’is McAdams
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/the-only-thing-noteworthy-in-the-notebookis-mcadams/
- Published: 2004-06-25T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T04:36:43.000Z
- Author: Dan Dunn
- Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import

Were I keeping a written record of memorable events in my life, as James Garner’s Duke does in this cloying sap-fest, it’s a safe bet nary a word would be dedicated to the two hours spent enduring “The Notebook.” The tear-jerked clichés begin with an opening “On Golden Pond”- esque tableau — a lone oarsmen rowing a serene river as a guitar gently weeps — and mercilessly never let up. They handed out tissue on the way into the screening, but I’d just as soon have blown my nose on the script … that is, if I’d been moved to blubbering (as intended) instead of giggling (as was not). Ryan Gosling (“The United States of Leland”) stars as a down-home puddle of drool opposite the captivating Rachel McAdams (“Mean Girls”) as a southern belle who’s, well, the best thing director Nick Cassavetes has going in his otherwise limp flick.

The plot device for which the film is named is reread daily by kindly old Duke — AKA Noah — to his inamorata Allie (Gena Rowlands) a lovely lady lost in the advanced stages of a memory-depleting Alzheimer’s-like illness. Allie doesn’t remember much, but Duke certainly does, and as we flash back to their courtship (McAdams and Gosling play young Allie and Noah) we find two kids from different sides of the tracks whose ill-advised summer fling develops into so much more. Problem is, not a single development feels fresh: Not the rich gal’s parents disapproval of the mill worker’s pedigree, nor the obstacles placed (World War II, another man, mawkish dialogue) before our star-crossed lovers en route to the predictable denouement. McAdams is the find here. The rest of it isn’t worth a teardrop. (Rated PG-13 for some sexuality. Running time: 121 minutes)

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 25, 2004.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/062504.pdf?ref=smdp.com)