Like so many people I love the movie ‘The Notebook.” How could you not? It’s packed with true love, passion, summer romance, forbidden romance; all attributes of a good romantic movie.
Confession: I have watched The Notebook about five times or more, and I almost cry every time. After the last time I watched it I needed more. So, I went to the source. I read the book. Well… listened to it on audible. The book is just as amazing as the movie, more even from my opinion. This is why I decided to point out the differences I noticed between both.
- The Rain Scene:
Listening to the book this was probably the most disappointing part. The famous scene where it is raining and Allie goes “Why didn’t you write? It wasn’t over for me,” with a reply from Noah saying “I wrote you everyday for a year. It wasn’t over for me either, and it still isn’t.” Then he kisses her and they make sweet love. It doesn’t exactly happen that way. The movie merged two separate scenes from the book into one. It was disappointing for me because during the “365 letters” scene in the book I wanted a kiss to happen, but I knew it wasn’t because it was too mundane. I definitely prefer the movie version of this because it makes the moment so intense and passionate.
- Lon:
I believe the movie does not give Lon enough credit. Lon is Allie’s fiance who she leaves for Noah. Yes, but the movie does not give enough detail to their relationship. It made it seem like everything was perfect but Allie just decided to leave because she did not love him enough. The issue is not that she did not love Lon, she did. She just did not to the extent that she loved Noah. This is the major reason I believe it was hard at first for Allie to decide between Lon and Noah. She loved them both. She just loved Noah more.
Side note: The movie does not mention this but Noah was the only person she had ever sexually been with.
- Allie and Noah as elders:
The plot of the movie primarily focuses on Noah and Allie’s lives in their youth. This is true for the book as well. However, the book gives more details. I believe the movie sort of rushes through the difficulties Noah and Allie face as elders. Most importantly their love over time. It is still clear in the movie that they love each other into old age but the intensity of their love is not depicted enough. Allie was able to continue to defy the odds against Alzheimer’s disease to the constant surprise of the doctors. Noah had to lie to Allie several times about who they both were when he read her their story. They went through a lot over their lifetime and knowing that they had hard times but pulled makes it seem like a possibility for readers.
- The ending:
In the movie, they die together. That is an extremely romantic ending. After living and enjoying life together for so many years it’s wonderful how they fall asleep next to each one last time. However, that’s not the same with the book. The very last scene from the book is suggests that Allie and Noah make love. I’m controversial about this because them dying together is really sweet, but being able to make love at their age, Allie’s Alzheimer’s and Noah’s Arthritis is a miracle.
I understand that turning a book into a movie is a lot of work and a significant amount of plot has to be condensed or cut out because no one would want to watch a five hour movie, and obviously budget. However, I am beyond glad that this book was made into a movie.
Either as a book or a movie it is an amazing story to tell. I’m mostly glad it is a movie because it has definitely been a key part to so many movie and lazy nights.