The Notebook: Critical Review

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The movie that I am going to be defending, against what I believe is baseless criticism is ‘the Notebook’, a 2004 film adaptation of the much-acclaimed Nicholas Sparks novel of the same name, directed by Nick Cassavetes. It is the complicated love-story of two teenagers who are separated by happenings in life and circumstances and then come back together through the conflicts until parted once more by the course of time and age, but how their love survives despite it all. The movie has recently been arraigned by critic Sadie Trombetta, representing the media brand Bustle.

Criticism:

Trombetta has strongly condemned the protagonist character Noah Calhoun as being an abusive and rather toxic personality with numerous claims of how he coerced the second protagonist, Allie Hamilton into what she calls a forced relationship and a demeaning way of treating a woman. According to her, the apparently ‘romantic’ male character actually reinforces threatening stereotypes of how men are expected to pursue women through any means necessary despite their repeated refusals. She believes that this is encouraging men to align with the concept that dominating women by ‘not giving up’ is the actual way of carving the path for a passionate relationship. Trombetta claims that “He essentially bullies Allie into dating him, a common trope in movies and books that buy into the ‘it’s all about the chase’ ideology that puts women in incredibly uncomfortable, even dangerous situations.” Moreover, she is strictly against the depiction of repeated arguments and fights between the couple that are perceived by the public as the strength and passion that lies in their love for one another. She then moves on to reprimand the way Noah’s repeated sending of letter to his former lover, she believes that this is a depiction of toxic and unhealthy ways of not letting someone go even though they are longer in your life. Trombetta regards Noah’s decision to build a house in what was a special place for him and Allie as a possibly plotted strategy to draw the girl back towards him and once again force her into the messy and torturous relationship that they both ended in their teenage days. Lastly, she finalizes that this character is simply bringing to life and promoting disgusting and dangerous pursuit patterns that society thinks women are after and men should definitely employ.

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Counter-argument:

I strongly disagree with Trombetta’s statements and see a number of gaps, flaws and biased extremes in the way she makes her claims. Primarily, I would like to point out that she focuses solely on the young-version of the character of Noah Calhoun, giving no consideration or mention of the film’s latter part in which an old aged Noah takes care of his wife Allie who for years has been suffering from Dementia and only recalls her husband for mere minutes in unexpected periods of time. Trombetta makes no appraisal of the character’s strength and devotion as he spends every minute catering for her. Next, I am appalled by the toxic-feminist perspective that the critic holds, she only identifies and singles out shortcomings from the male figure (and highlighting the same features over and over for what I believe is a lack of proper evidence), she gives no negative portrayal whatsoever to the female lead, shaping her as a helpless character bullied by the male protagonist, which is widely known as not at all being the case. This proves bias on the side of the author and shows that she simply wants to lead the reader to agree with what she believes, rather than providing neutral proof that would allow everyone to from their own opinion from the evidences. Furthermore, I find it interesting yet unreasonable how Trombetta wants to mold the human view of relationships as being perfect and free from any kind of conflict and problems. What I think she is attempting to do is that the normalization of multiple partners is so deep-rooted in the author’s mind that she is unable to grasp the concept of two people who continue to love each other despite the odds. Which is definitely the case in the movie, with Noah sending a letter everyday to the girl he believes is and later proves ‘the love of his life’, a phrase the writer ridicules continuously. I personally come to the conclusion that Trombetta is reproachful towards love and romance and inconsiderate as well as discriminatory towards the male gender. Her views did not stir my interpretation at all. I see a subtle pattern in the way the author attacks the male lead and continuously defends and victimizes the female protagonist of what toxic-feminist views can do to the perception of an individual towards a good and passionate recounting of love and fate.

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