"If You're a Bird..."

"They didn't agree on much, in fact they rarely agreed on anything. They fought all the time and they challenged each other every day but in spite of their differences they had one important thing in common. They were crazy about each other."

We see an old man reading from a weathered book, his eyes are softened by age and times passed but he reads from the book as though he's read it a thousand times.

The woman sitting at his side is quiet, wrapped in a shawl, confusion is obviously predominantly on her mind.

The story of Noah and Allie is the story the old man reads. The story of a summer romance between two opposite people who, it seems, are made for each other and yet are ultimately torn apart by circumstances beyond their control. The forbidden romance of Romeo and Juliet mixed with a feeling of timey classical romance women only imagine when they look at old, yellowed wedding photographs from the 1930's.

I, like other women, appreciate this the most. In fact, it's because of this that The Notebook has risen to the top of the pile in my "Chick-Flick Picks". It has become so popular, seven years after its release, that boyfriends are tested on how much they love their significant other by whether or not they decide to watch The Notebook. I too am guilty of this test.

What I appreciate the most about this film is that it doesn't just show the ups of a relationship, or the happy, worry-free times that a couple share. The Notebook throws us into a romance that blossoms in a time when romance isn't necessarily the most conveinient: the great-depression followed closely in suit by World War II and the ever present battle between classes that was present at the time.

We see a couple fight for what they truly want though neither of them are the perfect people who make the best choices. This film has its funny moments but the rollercoaster ride that most relationships experience is ridden out to the end. It gives us the idea that love isn't just about taking the best parts of the person and refusing to deal with the bad.

"One of contemporary cinema's most compelling and flat-out indelible love stories," David Nusair of Reel Film Reviews stated in November of 2008. Even for the men who watch this film - though they may go in kicking and screaming - have not been left unaffected. I feel films like The Notebook touch even the most hard-hearted people.

There's just something about a great and sprawling love story that gets even the most cynical of us right where we feel it and I feel that The Notebook doesn't do just this, but it leaves us with an impression that resounds long after we've turned off the screen.

I think that The Beatles song said it best, "all you need is love" and while most people love to deny love, there's just something about The Notebook that gets to you.

Overall, I would reccommend watching this movie with the girls first. Women are more likely to appreciate this film for what it is and the simple beauty of the underlying theme which is unconditional and everlasting love.