“The Notebook” opens Friday at Sundance Cinemas. R, 1:52, three stars out of four.
I’ll admit it, there’s a perverse appeal in the thought of somebody thinking they’re going to the theater of seeing a 10th-anniversary screening of the Ryan Gosling-Rachel McAdams romantic drama and instead seeing this pitiless World War II drama from Hungary.
Ten years ago last week, “The Notebook” opened in theaters, making stars out of Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, spawning adaptations of every other gooey romance novel Nicholas Sparks ever wrote, and taking some of the heat off “Love Actually” as the sappiest romance of the ’00s.
At the time, I actually sort of liked it, and thought McAdams and Gosling brought loads of charm to what was a very silly story. But one thing has bugged me ever since about “The Notebook” — the ending. As I was of the theater, I wrote in my head a much better ending to “The Notebook.” one that is even more sappy and sentimental than the original, but more interesting and surprising as well.
