The Notebook (2004)

I cry all the time. Any decent long distance commercial can do it, the "visits from home" episode of Survivor does it, and the scene where Santa Claus talks to the little Dutch girl in "Miracle on 34th Street" does it every year. So, why in the world couldn't I muster a single tear for a film that so obviously and desperately expected them?

Basically, this is the story of a couple falling in love...being torn apart because of differences in class...and finding each other again. That sounds pretty good. Now, here's the conceit: the male half of the couple is reading the story to the non-remembering female half of the couple in a nursing home. That sounds even better. So why doesn't it work?

My guess is that it isn't affecting because it isn't all that interesting. I didn't fall in love along with the characters and actually found their courtship pretty boring. Why did he love her? Because she's pretty? Why did she love him? Because he's poor?

The framing device of the nursing home scenes gives the story some weight -- but it feels undeserved. This romance is far too lightweight to have such a poignant denouement.

C+