The Notebook
All actors and roles (10)
Short description
The Notebook centres on an elderly man who reads aloud from a worn notebook to a woman in a nursing home who has Alzheimer's disease. The story he tells concerns Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton, two young people from very different social backgrounds who meet in a coastal town in North Carolina in the early 1940s. After a summer together, Allie's parents disapprove of the match and the couple are separated, first by her family and then by the Second World War. Years later, Allie is engaged to a wealthy businessman, while Noah has restored an old house and lives alone with his memories. When Allie learns of his return, she is drawn back to him and must decide the course of her life.
Nick Cassavetes directed the film, which followed his 2002 drama John Q and came before Alpha Dog, My Sister's Keeper, The Other Woman, God Is a Bullet and Marked Men: Rule + Shaw. Jeremy Leven and Jan Sardi wrote the screenplay, and Lynn Harris and Mark Johnson produced. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams play the younger Noah and Allie, with Gena Rowlands and James Garner as their older counterparts, alongside Joan Allen and David Thornton.
Made for about 29 million dollars, the film took roughly 116 million dollars worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.8 out of 10 from around 683,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.9 out of 10 from about 12,870 votes. A critics' rating of 6 out of 10 from 182 reviews sits below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film is based on Nicholas Sparks' novel 'The Notebook' (1996), which became a bestseller in its first week of sales.
- “The Notebook” is the third film adaptation of a novel by popular writer Nicholas Sparks. Previously, there were “A Walk to Remember” and “Message in a Bottle”.
- “The Notebook” is one of many projects that Steven Spielberg never got around to. Martin Campbell could also have directed the film.
- Justin Timberlake was considered for the role of Noah.
- Filming took place in South Carolina from November 2002 to February 2003.
- The film was originally scheduled for release in the fall of 2003. However, New Line Cinema postponed the release first to spring 2004, and then to June 25 of the same year.
- The film had been in development at New Line since 1995, and Tom Cruise was initially considered for the lead role. In 1999, the studio came very close to production with director Jim Sheridan and a relatively unknown Ashley Judd as the young heroine. Additionally, the roles of Ellie’s older and younger lover were offered to Robert Duvall and Matt Damon.
- Ryan Gosling prepared for filming by settling in Charleston, South Carolina. For two months, he regularly rowed on the river and made furniture.
- Initially, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams didn't get along, and Gosling even wanted another actress to be cast as Allie. Eventually, director Nick Cassavetes organized a therapy session for them during breaks in filming, putting them in the same room so the actors could directly express what they disliked about each other. It helped. Gosling and McAdams resolved their grievances, and a romance even blossomed between them for a time.
- Before filming began, Rachel McAdams spent some time in Charleston to acclimate herself to the area. She took ballet and etiquette lessons and worked with a linguist to master the local accent.
- Ryan Gosling made the kitchen table shown in the film himself as part of his preparation for the shoot.
- The scene in which Ryan Gosling's character crashes a car into the gates of Allie's summer house, played by Rachel McAdams, was not in the script; it all happened accidentally and was filmed. The gates, of course, were damaged, but the scene turned out beautifully.
- Director Nick Cassavetes needed an actor for the lead role who wasn't too well-known and wasn't a "handsome man," and he chose Ryan Gosling.
- Rachel McAdams auditioned for the role while the premiere of another film she was starring in was taking place. She received the script only a day before the audition, and 9 other actresses were also vying for the role.
- Scenes with the main characters set seven years later were filmed first, after which the film crew went on Christmas vacation. For the filming after the break, Ryan Gosling had to shave off his beard and lose almost 10 kg of weight. Gosling and Rachel McAdams felt more comfortable playing the ‘younger versions’ of their characters, and noticeably more constrained playing them after a seven-year separation.
- The shots of Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling's characters were actually shots of Gena Rowlands with her husband John Cassavetes, with James Garner's face superimposed onto the image of Cassavetes.
- Ryan Gosling (who played Noah in his youth) wore brown contact lenses because his eyes are blue, but they needed to be brown like the eyes of James Garner (who played Noah in his older years).
- Gina Rowlands, who played the elderly Ellie Nelson, is the mother of director Nick Cassavetes.
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