The Notebook: Movie vs. Book

I saw the movie before I read the book, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen the movie. I actually liked that I saw the film before I read this book because I was able to picture the characters in my head as I read the story. I didn’t remember specific differences from the movie after I read the book, so I wasn’t expecting anything drastically different to happen. For the most part the movie follows the book pretty well. This might be one of my favorite movies that started out as a book (that I’ve read). The story is heartwarming, yet terribly sad. Noah Calhoun is the narrator in both the book and movie. It flips back and forth between present and past as Noah tells the story of how he met his wife and fell in love after the magical summer they shared together. In the present, Noah comes in everyday to see his wife, Allie Nelson, who suffers from a severe case of dementia and he reads this story of their lives to her. Sometimes a miracle will happen and she’ll remember who she is and who Noah is, but it never lasts very long. Even though they are short remembrances of her old life the doctors can’t seem to figure out how it’s possible with the level of her dementia. Noah and some of the nurses at the assisted living believe that there is no science to why she can remember her past life, it’s because of the undying love the couple share and it has the strength to pull her through sometimes.

There were a few details that changed in the making of the movie, but one wouldn’t pick up on them unless they read the book only a few days before. A character was left out which in turn changed a few events for the movie. The biggest difference I noticed was the added conflicts to bring more drama into the film. After they share a wonderful summer together, Allie’s family doesn’t think Noah is suitable for their upper class daughter to be seeing. When Allie is out late with Noah, her family calls the police to find her because she hadn’t come home yet. Her parents take Allie into the other room while Noah sits waiting for her, but what he hears doesn’t make him feel very wanted. Her parents scream at her saying he isn’t good enough for you; he’ll never amount to anything. At this point he walks out of the house, she runs after him once she pulls away from her parents. After this fight they break up because it seems their lives are on different paths. In the book there isn’t a huge fight scene where they both blow up at each other. It’s much calmer in the book, but the director had to add some drama to spice it up. Besides added fights like this one the relationship between Allie and Noah is a rockier one. They fight over everything “but the one thing they had in common was, they were crazy for each other”. In the book they didn’t fight, and the reader is made to think they have a seemingly perfect relationship, which in essence they do since they are so madly in love with each other.

Allie came to visit Noah after seeing his photograph in the newspaper next to his finished house and they fall in love with each other all over again. The second time she comes to see him he brings her out on a boat to see the swans, a huge thunderstorm begins and once they are on the dock she’s asking him why he never wrote and he explains that he wrote everyday for a year (two according to the book), and after a little bit more dialogue, he kisses her passionately. This classic kiss in the rain never happens in the book, but it needs to be in the movie because that’s what the audience wants to see. Movies today are bolder and more in-your-face rather than slower paced film, it doesn’t sell as well. In the movie Noah is the one who initiates the kiss in the rain and then one things leads to another and they spend the day laying in front of the fireplace. It’s interesting that he was one to lead the kiss, because in the movie after they come inside and put on dry clothes Allie kisses him. A possible reason why the movie makers have Noah lead this is because Allie is engaged and supposed to be getting married in a few weeks (this doesn’t happen since she ends up marring Noah). Even though she didn’t initiate this scene she didn’t back away from it either. That scene was pretty different from the book, but I think it was justified.
In the book Nicholas Sparks is able to describe events in great detail, which I loved. For example, when Allie goes over to see Noah for the first time Sparks depicts everything that happens and talks about the lobsters he’s making and the fresh vegetables so the reader can picture it perfectly. In the movie this scene was much shorter and didn’t show him preparing the decadent meal, instead it was just them finishing up. I loved the very beginning of the movie when Noah and Allie first met at the fair and he asked her out on the Ferris wheel. The first encounter with Noah showed off his bold and flirty side. The movie was able to take liberties when presenting what happened during the summer. The outfits were colorful, fun music was playing and it flashed upon the different scene with the couple and their friends. There isn’t any way the book would have been able to do the same thing.

It’s hard to choose which one I liked better because they both have different strong points: the movie has actors, music and visuals, whereas the book has more details and lets the imagination do more work. All things considered, I liked the movie better than the book partly because of being able to put a name to a face with the actors (who did a wonderful job playing their roles) and also the whole movie experience. In most cases I usually like the book better because in a movie it’s impossible to incorporate everything the author does in the novel, but I thought the director, Nick Cassavetes, did a great job sticking to the storyline and didn’t add too much extra drama to the film. I liked being able to see the house Noah works on, the sunrises and the inlet full of gorgeous white swans. It brings a little extra to the story. Both were very well done, and it will continue to remain one of my favorite movies.