Cinema Hype

I finally saw The Notebook this weekend. Do you think they’re going to take away my Girl Card and my pearls, since it took me so long? It’s just one of those movies that’s supposed to call to women like some kind of subliminal siren: if you’ve got a pair of X chromosomes, get thee to a theater! You will not be allowed in without a full box of tissues.

I hadn’t seen it, I think, because its reputation preceded it. Have you Googled “sappy movie” lately? Check it out and see how many Notebook-related hits come up. I like sad movies as much as the next girl, but it’s a certain type of sad that I go for—it’s got to be the sadness of regular life, a particular shade of blue, or it always seems vaguely masochistic to me. I don’t go for that kind of thing, especially with my $10 ticket price.

But—SPOILERS AHEAD!—here’s the thing. That was not the saddest movie I’ve ever seen. Not even close. If you want to know the truth, I didn’t even cry. I mean, come on! She ends up with the “right” guy! They end up so much together that they die together, hand in hand. And after a long and apparently happy life, that doesn’t seem like such a bad way to go, you know? The truly sad version of this movie would have ended with Rachel McAdams, James Marsden (who, poor guy, can never seem to get a date, which is absurd; look at him!), and their life of regrets and misery. I’m just saying. They’re going to have to come up with something better than that to melt my (apparent) heart of stone.

The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks, Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, sad movies, sappy movies