Broken English

I (M) watched this movie when it came out and I really liked it. We have watched it again recently with N and we both think you should watch it. We tell you why in seven minutes, here.

The Notebook

By M

The Cassavetes is such an interesting family.

Here we go on Nick. (I should say I have only watched Alpha Dog and She’s So Lovely, but I have opinions on all his movies).

The man has directed six movies so far, as different as the excellent life changing Alpha Dog, the Hollywood industry piece John Q or the “let’s use cinema to make people think about issues in Anglo-Saxon philosophy” My Sister’s Keeper. And then there are these two movies, She’s So Lovely and The Notebook, that are both about a woman having to choose between “this is good for you and nice, see? you like it!” and “this is crazy, and called love”.

The Cassavetes have a soft spot for kitsch. Remember the aerials of an almost empty L.A. with that music in Gloria. Remember Gloria’s last scene, and the slow-motion hug. Yeah, they do like kitsch. (Let’s leave Zoe out of this). Not as in “this is so kitsch that it now means something else”, but as in “isn’t this just moving”?

The movie starts with a panoramic view of a pink sky, a pink river, actually, a pink horizon and ducks migrating. Then, Gena’s golden hair on the left side of the screen, admiring this landscape through the window.

And this is as kitsch as it gets, so you are warned. There is something T.V. like kitsch about the Cassavetes family, maybe because Gena was a T.V. person for so long. So there is something nostalgic, something vintage about that kitsch. I know that television is still an on-going phenomenon, but that particular 80s kind of television is gone.

I liked this movie. I really did. If I could choose to be someone else, I would love to be the kind of person who directs Alpha Dog. Only, I doubt I would ever have the courage of coming up with The Notebook. Not that I don’t think about this kind of stories, but I know they are kitsch, easy. They work because we all want to be them and I guess that’s the cheapest side of cinema.

So maybe I liked it because I wanted to be them. This is my starry-eyed side, but I guess I want to believe that there are people like them out there. I know how bad this is for life in general and relationships in particular, but I like the idea that there are people irrationally driven to each other. I like to think that there are some people who dismiss the well-measured nice happiness and go for something else. And the fact that this is perfectly assumed by Gosling’s “apparently simple but in fact over aware” character makes the movie worth seeing.

One of my favourite scenes is illustrative of this: At some point McAdams is considering leaving him for her perfect life and she says something like “we have only spent two days together and look at us, we are already fighting”. Gosling answers in a very angry tone: “yeah, that is what we do, we fight”. I guess assuming that is just liberating. I like the way they fight and kiss, as if there wasn’t any distinction between the two, because the category is “intensity”. I know it has been said a million times, but it reassures me to think that there are still people who think “nice” is not the ultimate category. It reassures me to think that there are people who fight against the hegemonic categories of “love” Vs “dispute” and that create categories such as “intensity” or “dullness” that cut across the hegemonic ones.

I can give you many reasons to watch this movie. First and foremost because all opportunities to see Gena Rowlands playing mental illness are transcendent presents that one would be crazy to miss.

But there are also many others. Rachel McAdams’ character is dichotomous: there is what she has been taught to be and knows is good and then there is a side of her that is in a 250km/h ferrari. The movie starts with Ryan Gosling asking her out in all possible ways, including risking his life. She is not touched. Anyone would have fell for that (thank God Hollywood taught us to fall for that). She doesn’t, because it’s irrational, crazy and she hasn’t learnt Hollywood’s lessons (she actually specifies she never goes to the movies).

I adore the way she jumps on Gosling every time she sees him. She runs to him and jumps on him as if life was about to end. As if she was about to die and only touching him could save her. As one runs for air when staying too long underwater.

I also love that the title is a spoiler.

Finally, a special note for Gosling’s fans: it’s interesting to see that his body here is the body of a youngster, and from our 2013 perspective it’s amazing how it has turned into a man’s body so quickly.

I recommend this movie, and I hope my beloved N, who disliked it, will explain why.