The Notebook

Big-lunged lovers Allie (McAdams) and Noah (Gosling) – pampered Southern débutante and rough-earth mill worker, respectively – are on a liberty spree, and the minutes of their magical hysteria tour are duly recorded in the titular ledger-cum-framing device, in the possession of a kindly codger, Duke (Garner). He reads from the notebook to the now-elderly Allie (Rowlands), who spends her dotage befogged by an Alzheimer’s-like illness. Apparently, Allie can no longer recognise her husband or children, but has retained enough short-term memory and powers of concentration to follow Duke’s romantic narrative from day to day. Amid the sticky-sweet swamp of Jeremy Leven’s script, Rowlands and Garner emerge spotless and beatific, lending a near-miraculous credibility to their scenes together.