Some films seem to be about special effects, or are vehicles for particular actors or celebrities, or are cynical attempts to make money from the movie-going public. That’s why it is so great to see a real story told in moving pictures.
The Notebook is a film of a Nicholas Sparks book (which I haven’t read), and it is beautifully and memorably shot. When I say the story is told in moving pictures I mean just that: the scenes are at times very moving. It’s a very powerful love story, with a thread of melancholy running through it.
I don’t know why films that show very happy times viewed in flashback after those times are gone appeal to me, but they do. Perhaps it’s the reason I like Del Amitri songs.
There were a lot of sad-happy flashbacks in The Constant Gardener, which we finally got around to seeing recently. That was an outstanding film, with challenging subject matter.
Also, on the DVD there was a clip of John le Carré talking about his book. He made it sound as if the choice of enemy, in this case “the drug companies”, was almost an afterthought — but in the film it seems so central. They also talked a little bit in the DVD extras about a charity they had set up to help the people in the two main locations where the film was shot.