Book V. Movie-The Notebook

                                                

In the Nicholas Sparks “The Notebook” he tells a story about a romance between a man and a woman, from when they met as teenagers until they are in a nursing home, trying to overcome the trials and tribulations of Alzheimer’s and loss of memory. Throughout the story it is clear that they love each other deeply. There was one thing that I found surprising, that I enjoyed the movie more than I did the book. When I have watched other movie versions of a book, I found that the book had so much more depth and character than the movie version did. In this case I found the opposite occurred. That in the movie format “The Notebook” had characters that had so much more depth and emotion than the book. Also, the parts that the directors and producers added to the movie did not take away from the story; instead it enhanced the movie. Producers and directors tend to do this with a lot of movies, because something that work in books don’t work in movies, and that’s that same with books, where things will work wonderfully in a book but won’t play out well in a movie scene.

 As I mentioned earlier the story describes the lives of a couple’s life from the time they fell in love as teenagers, until they are both in their later years. The Notebook spans out two different life spans of time. At first it is not clear if the two timelines are related through characters or stories, until the reader realizes that the common thread in both spans of time is a notebook that is being read by an elderly male character to a sickly female character. From the beginning of the story it is clear that this elderly male character name, “Duke” cares deeply for the female character. She seems lost and confused. The story that he reads to her is from this notebook, it tells of a young couple from different social classes and the impossibility for them to be together. However, they continue to stay in love throughout the years and miles between the two. It soon becomes clear to the reader that “Duke” does not just care for the lost elderly lady, but he loves her. Allie seems lost because she has Alzheimer’s and she does not know who he is, although he reads to her from the notebook every day. As the story unfolds it is clear that “Duke” is the same young Noah in the notebook and the elderly lady is Allie. He also reads to her every day the story of their pure love from this notebook, in the hopes that Allie will remember him and herself. In the end all his devotion to Allie pays off and she remembers their love. Just a time, Allie remembers who Noah is, her husband and best friend. This story shows the power of love and what it can do to bring two people together no matter what the odds are whether it is, social class, distance, time or loss of memory.

There are several scenarios that the movie director has added to the movie that was absent in the book. First off, the movie focuses heavily on Allie and Noah’s younger characters and their relationship, whereas, the book generalized the characters which did not show the byplay of their relationship. The lack of depth to the characters in the book, took away some of the meaning of the story. I felt this when I watched the movie, that it depicted the pure love the young couple felt and what they endured in order to be together. A second difference between the book and the movie was that in the book format, the author of the notebook which Noah is reading from was written by Noah himself. In contrast, in the movie format the author of the notebook he is reading from was written by Allie. Which she instructed Noah to read to her when her illness progressed and she could not remember who she was let alone who Noah was. Another scenario that was absent from the book was the ending. In the book they are both in the nursing home and Noah sneaks into Allie’s room because he misses her on their anniversary, hoping that she will remember him and not send him away. Instead she does and she opens her arms and accepts her love to her heart. On the other hand, in the movie Noah sneaks into Allie’s room to be with her on their anniversary, hoping that she will remember him. When she wakes up and sees Noah’s face, her face lights up and she recognizes him. They lie together and hold one another where she remembers their love and they fall asleep in each other’s arms. In the morning the nurse finds that they have passed away in their sleep still holding each other with an expression of love and peace on their faces.