Rating of
3.5/4
This is a timeless, moving romance!
MovieAddict - wrote on 02/18/12
Love never dies!
Noah (James Gosling) plays a hard working lumber yard worker who is smitten by Allie, (nicely played by Rachel McAdams) a rich, southern belle living under the watchful eyes of her snooty, upper crust parents who have pretty much mapped out her whole life for her. Allie’s parents disapprove of their romance and take her back to the city. Noah writes to Allie everyday for a year - 365 letters but her mother keeps the letters that he wrote her secret. The disillusioned Allie believes that their relationship was just a summer romance and that he has forgotten about her so she gets engaged to a wealthy man of the same standards. Meanwhile, Noah is restoring an old house just the way he promised Allie he would do it. After seeing Noah’s picture in the paper Allie decides to visit him to see if "he is OK?!?" All their old feelings for each other come flooding back and Allie has to decide on who she will be with, the man she has always loved or the man who can provide for her.
Based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks, the film, is directed by Nick Cassavetes, has been structured as one giant flashback, in which a now aged Noah (James Garner) everyday reads to his wife Allie (Gena Rowlands), who is suffering from what the doctor calls "senile dementia" and so doesn't realize that the story being read to her is actually her life but Noah is convinced that if he reads the story to her enough, his Allie will remember. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams have tremendous chemistry and Gena Rowlands and James Garner give moving performances in their respective roles. Their story is both beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.
