The Notebook is a movie loved by many for its predictable and overly sentimental plot, mostly by people with XX chromosomes (with some exceptions). Guys are dragged to watch it, while females pull out their tissues and sob over a fictional movie, all while trying to imagine that they are Allie. Meanwhile, the rational rest of us are left to make sense of the clichéd phenomenon that is The Notebook.
1. Allie and Noah have literally known each other for less than one summer.
How are they proclaiming their love to each other when they barely even know one another? The movie doesn't show much beyond Allie and Noah's first date, minus a few brief clips, before they are planning for their future together. Allie even asks Noah to come to school with her in New York, and they are practically strangers.
2. The rich girl/poor boy dynamic is really clichéd and gets old pretty fast.
Right from the beginning of the movie, Finn tells Noah that Allie is filthy rich. Yes, we get it Allie; you're loaded. You can stop telling Noah about your fancy dance and art classes and you're jam-packed schedule. I think he gets the hint. The movie is constantly reminding viewers of the difference in wealth in order to add an extra dynamic to Noah and Allie's already boring relationship.
3. Allie only comes back to Noah AFTER she see's his fancy new house in the paper.
Would Allie have come back if she didn't see the newspaper article of Noah in the paper? We will never know, but I wonder if she would have ran back to him if he still didn't have a cent to his name.
4. Allie CHEATS on her fiancé.
Is anyone else noticing that Allie is unfaithful when they're cooing about how romantic the scenes are when she cheats on Lawn, or is that just me? Yes, it's so romantic when a fully-grown woman cheats on her fiancé with a summer fling during her adolescence.
5. The movie's plot is extremely and unrealistically convenient.
Allie's mom just so happens to have also fallen in love with a poor man from the same town as Noah who just so happens to be around when Allie's mom picks her up from Noah's house all those years later. Noah just so happens to see Allie in the window while he is on a trip to get building plans approved. It just doesn't all add up. Not to mention the biggest "incidental" event of them all--when Noah and Allie just so happen to die the same night while they are both together.
6. Martha? Enough said.
This sad human being is probably the most over-looked part of the movie. Noah just blows off this woman that he has been hooking up with the entire time after Allie left, and, as soon as Allie comes back into the picture, he drops Martha like a hot potato. The worst part is that Martha doesn't even seem to care; she is content with remaining the sad person she is.
So, next time you reach for those tissues and turn on The Notebook, I urge you to not blindly accept all of the sentimental clichés and plot "twists," if they can even be called that, and choose a movie not based on a book by Nicholas Sparks.
