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The Notebook
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Metascore
53 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 34 Critics What's this?

User Score
8.3 out of 10

Universal acclaim- based on 150 Ratings

Your Score
10 out of 10
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  • Starring: Gena Rowlands, James Garner, Joan Allen, Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling
  • Summary: A sweeping love story told by a man (Garner) reading from his faded notebook to a woman in a nursing home (Rowlands), The Notebook follows the lives of two North Carolina teens from very different worlds who spend one indelible summer together before they are separated, first by her parents and then by WWII. (New Line Productions)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 15 out of 34
  3. Negative: 3 out of 34
  1. Wall Street Journal
    Reviewed by: Joe Morgenstern
    90
    A lovely surprise. Ripe with feeling and lush with physical beauty, it's a love story that swings confidently between age and youth, and, like the young Tiger Woods of old, avoids every trap along the way.
    All this critic's reviews
  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jessica Winter
    60
    Amid the sticky-sweet swamp of Jeremy Leven's script, Rowlands and Garner emerge spotless and beatific, lending a magnanimous credibility to their scenes together. These two old pros slice cleanly through the thicket of sap-weeping dialogue and contrivance, locating the terror and desolation wrought by the cruel betrayals of a failing mind.
  3. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    25
    I have the same allergic reaction to this open faucet of tear-jerking swill as I do to the 1996 Nicholas Sparks novel that inspired it.

See all 34 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 73 out of 87
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 87
  3. Negative: 7 out of 87
  1. Jade
    10
    10 10 10 10 10 ... i love this movie so much, coming from a girls perspective.. men might not like it all that much, but its WONDERFUL!!!
    • 1 of 1 users said yes
  2. jimmytancredi
    5
    Well, I am one of those romantic ... and I much prefer a romance to a romantic comedy (anytime!) then, so was predisposed to like the movie. Of course I heard much about it because it is the typical movie that when people talk about romance, someone mentions the conversation: "You like it? Have you seen The Notebook?" The story is too beautiful and the romantic cliches are all there (thankfully) because the novel is to be romantic, it is to have remarkable dialogues, is to have beautiful scenes, etc.. Not to mention how I cried during the 2-hour movie, it seems that nothing else matters but the happiness of two characters on television. It's over, and and I was still crying ten minutes more, nor could he comment on the scenes without thrill me again ... ahahah (I'm hopeless, I know). Those who like novels, have to see The Notebook (it took me to see, because I'm stupid). I have a list of novels to watch (or read), but I better take a break, because life without these cinematographic, would be depressing!… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. Aaron
    2
    This movie will leave you wondering, moreover, gasping, about why films like this are still made... A typical love story with the only surprise or mystery throughout the entire cliche infected plot being that I decided to watch it in the first place. A shallow and awful attempt at what (to use stereophonics lyrics wisely) people who see no further than handbags and gladrags think love is! The acting was not terrible. It was bad, but not terrible. I think it must be difficult to act so unrealistically. The majority of the scenes are so far fetched and you can't help but feel like the writers of sex and the city could have written something more meaningful let alone believable. Some of the cinematography is well performed although, again, is subject to instant failure because of the simplicity and unrealistic portrayal of this story. I am sure, however, that many people will love this because Hollywood, yet again, has turned what was possibly a meaningful story, into an absolute (for the use of a better word) soppy, love drip mess.… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 87 User Reviews

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