The Notebook (2004)

All Critics (155) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (84) | Rotten (75) | DVD (32)

The connection between the two narratives is supposed to be a big, heartbreaking surprise, though I figured it out well in advance and spent the interim unfavorably comparing this greatest-generation hanky wringer to the British drama Iris.

October 3, 2011 Full Review

J. R. Jones

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

How rare to see a film that says there is still a value system out there, that being thoughtful and caring is not uncool.

July 23, 2004 Full Review | Comment (1)

Rex Reed

New York Observer

Top Critic

The movie not only approaches a level of shamelessness you have to see to disbelieve, it does it in a manner that's both inept and crass.

July 3, 2004 Full Review | Comments (3)

Charles Taylor

Salon.com

Top Critic

May be one hundred percent sap, but its spirit is anything but cloying, thanks to persuasive performances, most notably from Rachel McAdams.

June 25, 2004 Full Review

Desson Thomson

Washington Post

Top Critic

This is a movie that isn't ashamed to wring each teardrop by any means necessary.

June 25, 2004 Full Review

Ann Hornaday

Washington Post

Top Critic

Our resistance is broken down, and the hankies are out.

June 25, 2004 Full Review | Comment (1)

Susan Walker

Toronto Star

Top Critic

If you ever want to see a flawless example of a movie which is redeemed from mediocrity solely through the cast, there is hardly a better one than this.

April 11, 2012 Full Review

Tim Brayton

Antagony & Ecstasy

Bland and sentimental, The Notebook is old-fashioned filmmaking aimed at an old-fashioned audience. Kleenex essential.

October 3, 2011 Full Review

Film4

Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams spark cinematically everlasting magic in a romance that's no tawdry Harlequin hay-roll. "The Notebook" excels most when contemplating love's obligations and responsibilities, that unique balance of fire and calm.

September 19, 2010 Full Review

Nick Rogers

Suite101.com

More sexy stuff than you'd expect for a syrupy romance.

July 8, 2010 Full Review

Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

A very engrossing and entertaining sudsy romance with top notch performances.

April 29, 2009 Full Review

Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

for someone who loves these sorts of stories, it would be a fantastic movie

March 5, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)

Kevin Carr

7M Pictures

If you go with it, which I admit I resisted for a while, it will hook you. (Blu-ray Edition)

January 16, 2009 Full Review | Comment (1)

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

I prepared myself for a tearjerker; what I didn't prepare for was an outright gusher.

January 16, 2009 Full Review | Comments (2)

John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

...one of contemporary cinema's most compelling and flat-out indelible love stories.

November 29, 2008 Full Review | Comment (1)

David Nusair

Reel Film Reviews

A potently rich story about the power of love, The Notebook is heartbreakingly beautiful and achingly real.

October 18, 2008 Full Review

Urban Cinefile Critics

Urban Cinefile

Ssomehow Cassavetes pulls it off -- thanks mainly to sensitive performances and pretty Hallmark-card cinematography by Robert Fraisse.

August 7, 2008 Full Review

Jim Lane

Sacramento News & Review

A sentimental film filled with flashbacks and clichés.

May 23, 2007 Full Review | Comment (1)

Kam Williams

Princeton Town Topics

A thoughtful, emotionally rich film in which we see that great love, like deep faith, is forged on doubt, trials, and hardships. Only then does it deliver its deepest rewards.

September 27, 2006 | Comment (1)

Stefan Ulstein

Christianity Today

I cannot believe I'm about to recommend a movie as clogged with melodramatic treacle as Nick Cassavetes' adaptation of The Notebook.

May 26, 2006 Full Review

Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

... one gets the sense that director Nick Cassevetes and writer Jan Sardi would spray the audience with teargas if they could.

July 25, 2005 Full Review | Comments (9)

Uri Lessing

www.kcactive.com

• 1. Noah: Would you stop thinking about what everyone wants? Stop thinking about what I want, what he wants, what your parents want. What do YOU want?
  – Submitted by Yoga L (6 months ago)
• 1. Noah: When I see something I like, I gotta... I love it.
  – Submitted by Yoga L (6 months ago)
• 1. Noah: So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me... everyday.
  – Submitted by Yoga L (6 months ago)
• 1. Noah: It wasn't over, it still isn't over..
  – Submitted by Jamie B (7 months ago)
• 1. Noah Calhoun: If you're a bird, I'm a bird.
  – Submitted by Grace D (13 months ago)
• 1. Noah: I wrote 365 letters. I wrote you everyday for a year.
  – Submitted by Paola G (13 months ago)