2K Replay: THE NOTEBOOK

 by Adam Riske

Winner for “Best Kiss” (Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling) at the MTV Movie Awards.

• Best Scene/Moment (tie): When Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams kiss in the rain (it won that MTV award for good reason) and when James Garner says “That’s my sweetheart in there. Wherever she is, that’s where my home is.”

• Best Song: “I’ll Be Seeing You” by Jimmy Durante.

• Best Merch: A For Your Consideration DVD for The Notebook for $89.99. What a deal!

• Director Grade: The Notebook was directed by Nick Cassavetes.
Great Movies: N/A
Good Movies: The Notebook
OK Movies: She’s So Lovely, Alpha Dog
Bad Movies: John Q.
Unseen By Me: Unhook the Stars, My Sister’s Keeper, Yellow, The Other Woman, God Is a Bullet
Overall Grade: B-

• Double It with This 2004 Movie: Before Sunset

• Year 2004 Movies to Trailer Before It: Mean Girls, The Phantom of the Opera, Wicker Park

• Color of Night or The Notebook? Tie. They’re both very romantic.

• Mall Movie? Nah. This is a movie you bring a date to if you’re shooting your shot after taking them to The Cheesecake Factory. Fancy theater all the way.

• Only in 2004: Kevin Connolly as value-add in the friend role.

• Scene Stealer (tie): Joan Allen and James Marsden.

• I Miss (tie): James Garner and Gena Rowlands.

• I Don’t Miss: Nicholas Sparks adaptations.

• 2004 Crush: Rachel McAdams.

• 2024 Crush: Rachel McAdams.

• What I Thought in 2004: I can’t really remember but I believe I thought The Notebook was somewhere between okay to pretty good back in 2004. I was mainly crushing on Rachel McAdams because how could you not? I didn’t like Ryan Gosling in this movie because he was trying to steal away someone’s woman which had just happened to me in real life, so I wasn’t sympathetic.

• What I Think in 2024: I like it more now than I did in 2004. It’s good melodrama and I love the four lead performances by Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, and Gena Rowlands. It’s sad but very romantic and involving. I’m glad I revisited it.