Shadow Footprints

I saw The Notebook last night. It's good. A chick flick but still good. Lin invited me, and as I wasn't doing anything else I went, with very little idea what it was about.

Ryan Gosling is hot, especially after he grew a beard. What is it about Canadian men, and how can I get one? If you're a cute Canadian in Auckland, I'm taking auditions.

James Garner carried his role well, and his interaction with Gena Rowlands during her character's moments of lucidity was good.

The only flaws I noticed were minor, including the overuse of a sunset filter on the camera at the beginning. Nevertheless, feel free to give me a copy of the DVD when it comes out.

Spoilers follow, don't click below if you haven't seen the movie yet. Just go to the movie and come back.

Follow up:

The appearance of the older Noah is a mismatch to the younger Noah. James Garner has dark hair (with grey), unlike Ryan Gosling. If his hair was all grey this wouldn't have been a problem. Before we knew his name I was wondering if he was the elder Lon Hammond, not that I recognised James Marsden who also played Cyclops in X-Men.

I liked the motif of the birds, and expected it at the end of the movie with the way it was set up earlier. I do wonder about the birds flying about at the beginning; they didn't look quite right in they flew and I wondered if they were cgi. If they were, there was a nice bit of detail put in with a subtle reflection of one in the water.

It was irritating watching them lying in the road and have them appear one moment in the centre of a lane and in the next moment (from a different camera angle) have them appear in the middle, where the painted line is. This change of camera viewpoint, with bodies flicking back and forth, occurred a couple of times.

The clothing they wore, for a summer, was too think. I'd heard it stays warm at nights in South Carolina and thick jackets and breath made visible in the cold doesn't fit.

It's not a deep story. Right girl and poor man meet for a summer ronance, lose each other at the end of summer and meet again many years later. The hopeless romantic part of me liked it more than the great cynic, and I had tears in my eyes in parts.

I would have been happy if Allie had been more unconventional and chosen both men.