Mary Kassel Screen Rant Apr 9, 2025 7/10

Romance might not be for everyone, but after more than 20 years, The Notebook holds an undeniable appeal that will convert every cynic.

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Patricia Karounos Refinery29 Oct 23, 2023

The Notebook is one of those movies that is so sad, you could break out into tears just thinking about it.

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Mark Jackson Epoch Times Apr 21, 2023 4/5

A tearjerker? It'll make you cry but it's not manipulative. A chick flick? It's just an inspiring love story that will touch your heart and make you believe true love can last a lifetime and conquer all. Isn't that what we all want?

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Patrick McDonald HollywoodChicago.com Feb 25, 2023 3.5/5

There is always cinema room for the unabashed tearjerker, & THE N delivers on that "note." Any film that has Gena Rowlands in it will at least shine when she is on the screen & this was no exception. David Thornton with a handlebar mustache ... exquisite!

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Mike Massie Gone With The Twins Nov 7, 2020 8/10

Though torn between two storylines, one of which vastly outshines the other, "The Notebook" is still an impressive production.

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Debbie Lynn Elias Behind The Lens Nov 13, 2019

Intelligently adapted and written by Jan Sardi, this is the tear-jerker of the summer. A chick flick? Yes. Classic Hollywood romance? Yes. Will it touch your heart? Without a doubt...

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PJ Nabarro Patrick Nabarro Oct 31, 2019 2/5

James Garner and Gena Rowlands lend the story a graceful gravity that perhaps the rest of the film's more simplistic romanticism doesn't deserve.

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Ellie Lucas The Dispatch (Lexington, NC) Jun 5, 2019 2/4

Never quite escapes the been-there-done-that feeling of Hollywood romantic cliché with sunny photography and perfectly tailored costumes to boot.

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Kaleem Aftab The List Apr 18, 2019 3/5

Frank Capra would be proud of the way Nick Cassavetes pulls at the heart strings... Have tissues at the ready.

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James Christopher Sunday Times (UK) Feb 2, 2019

The Notebook is a ghastly piece of oldie slush which is tediously orchestrated by Nick Cassavetes.

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Megan Spencer sbs.com.au Feb 2, 2019 2.5/5

The Notebook is the kind of syrupy, heightened melodrama more likely to be found in the pages of a Mills & Boon paperback than on the silver screen.

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Scott Tobias AV Club Feb 2, 2019

In a romance where paradise is a duck-filled pond, it helps to be mild-mannered.

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Peter Bradshaw Guardian Feb 2, 2019 1/5

Dentistry in the Renaissance could not have been more painful than watching this.

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Mike Goodridge Screen International Feb 2, 2019

The Notebook is premium romantic schlock and confirms director Nick Cassavetes (Rowlands' son) as a specialist in the genre after John Q in 2002.

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Bob Grimm Reno News and Review Feb 2, 2019 4/5

Two good, young performers and a couple of not-too-shabby older ones not only make The Notebook worth watching but distinguish the film as one of the year's more pleasant surprises.

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Arthur J Pais Rediff.com Feb 2, 2019

The climax, again, is unsurprising to those who haven't read the novel. Yet it is hard not to surrender to the film's sentimentality.

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Michael Dwyer Irish Times Feb 2, 2019

The Notebook is a thoroughly old-fashioned romantic melodrama awash with misty-eyed sentiment as it charts the obstacles placed in the path of two young lovers from opposite sides of the social divide.

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David Aldridge Radio Times Feb 2, 2019 3/5

A shameless tear-jerker and as corny as they come, this retro romantic drama skilfully pushes all the right emotional buttons.

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Leslie Felperin The Times (UK) Feb 2, 2019

A honey-dipped love story with a surprisingly tart aftertaste, The Notebook is a better-than-you'd-expect adaptation of Nicholas Sparks's bestselling novel of the same name.

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Emilio Luna El antepenúltimo mohicano Feb 2, 2019 8.5/10

A story about true love that makes you cry, the kind you don't forget. [Full Review in Spanish]

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