Trawled through the BBC "Films" offerings and unfortunately couldn't stop myself watching "The Notebook" to the end. I stayed just for James Garner and Gena Rowlands, who are both actors I enjoy and respect. The plot was pathetically contrived, the ending even more so as in "hey guys, let's make a Romeo and Juliet kind of film...". The depiction of young love was so crudely boring and mechanical as to represent Hollywood at it's most formulaic. No meaningful dialogue, no depth in the characters, nothing of value.
Nothing resembling acting from Rachel McAdams who just squeaked and squawked her way through as if to signal that she was having fun and therefore in love. Oh yes - we know she's "deep" because she is seen painting a picture for 10 seconds and playing 8 bars of a Chopin prelude. Job done. Yeah, right. Ryan Gosling just stares into space to attempt some gravitas and mystery. We know he's deep because he recites 2 lines of Walt Whitman (twice...) that his father taught him. Profound stuff.
At the end I felt robbed, cheated and trivialised. Hollywood really is a cesspit at its worst.