“The Notebook” directed by Nick Cassavetes and “the Vow” by Michael Sucsy are successful motivational and captivating romantic movies. The films have similar plots, with the main characters portrayed as lovers, whose romantic story is used as a basis to overcome their contemporary predicaments. The directors used seemingly similar storylines, where the memories of specific characters were jolted using the tales of their love. Although the situations in which memory is used to alter an individual’s psychology is unique to each movie, the effect of the past on the present remains the baseline in both scripts. Both films independently explore the nature of fate and free will as well as the dominant manner in which people interact. Therefore, the paper compares and contrasts the movies: The Notebook and The Vow by critically analyzing the plot, theme, styles, and character development, among other factors.
Contrast
Plot
The Notebook is a love story between Allie (Rachel McAdams) and Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling). Ally left him after their summer romance during their teenage years but decades later, their love was rekindled while Ally was in a nursing home, suffering from Alzheimer’s. Noah takes her home and she reads from a notebook on the diary of their life together. As he read, flashes of their memory as teenagers come back and it didn’t take long for the two to become inseparable. On the other hand, The Vow is a film about two new weds, Paige (Rachel McAdams) and Leo (Channing Tatum). After a romantic evening, a fatal head-on collision sends Paige (who is madly in love with Leo) through the windshield. She is admitted to the hospital where she remains in a coma for days. When she wakes up, she has memory lapse and Leo is devastated but she is determined to bring her home. After a tussle between them and Paige’s parents, she eventually moves in with them. Eventually, influence of her parents and pressures from her old affluent life led her to file a divorce and Leo reluctantly agrees. However, the story ends with the love birds bumping into each other years later and their love is rekindled.
Theme
The overarching theme in The Notebook is: Love conquers all. No matter the setbacks faced by Allie and Noah, their love eventually brought them back together. First, they face the pressure of their parents and their separation is compounded by the distinct social positions. Her mother hid letters from Noah and she pressures her to give up on painting, a talent that Noah had inspired. Later, their four year old son dies and worse, Allie was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (Wasowski 10). The Notebook ends on a somewhat promising note after Allie remembers Noah and uses her free will to decide whom to marry. Despite all these challenges, nothing could keep them apart from each other. In contrast, the most important theme in the movie The Vow is that of perseverance by a romantic hero pursuing her heroin. Leo perseveres against the pressures of Paige’s parents, her previous fiancé and the society, with the hope that Paige would remember their love. Freewill affects the fate of both Leo and Paige because the latter is not in a condition to remember her husband and willingly detach herself from him. Patience and tenacity is an attribute that Leo continuously upheld until she got back bits of her memory.
Stylistic devices
The Notebook effectively uses color, costume, character and editing to reinforce the theme of love. Colors influence the way the audience perceive their love story. Episodes that show Ally and Noah together are painted white pink, blue and green. For their dates, Ally wore bright and a pastel color dress and when they parted ways they both wear grey and boring colored clothes (Wasowski 11). Moreover, Ryan Gosling (Noah) fits the role of a young and careless Lad while Rachel McAdams (Allie) perfectly fits the role of an educated cheerful beauty. Their gestures, movements and facial expressions enables the audience to empathize with them. To ascertain that there is a correlation between free will and fate, the director in the movie use flashback. Actually, “The Notebook” is entirely built on this technique. As the film starts, an elderly man, who is the first narrator, is telling the story of two lovers to an Alzheimer female patient laying on a hospital bed. The plot of the movie then professionally deviates from the two older adults and focuses on the love story of two youngsters who existed long time ago. Therefore, it is justified for one to say that the plot of “The Notebook” is built on flashback.
Use of Foreshadowing and flashback in The Vow - After their divorce, the exciting part in The Vow is that the divorced Paige is seen in law school class sketching the outline of the same sculpture that she had abandoned prior the accident. This scene is enough foreshadowing as she slowly reacquainted herself with the things she used to love. The Vow” draws its meaning only in the face of flashback (Carpenter 24). The life of Leo and Paige before the accident is only highlighted in a throwback manner. Although the audience does not know the kind of life the two couples in the movie lived, the author adds a flashback so that memory loss experienced by Paige could have its intended effect (Wasowski 31).In the final scene, Paige bumps into Leo and it is expected that they ended up re-uniting despite their tragic history.
Comparison
Both movies are Hollywood romance at their simplest and they express true love through tragedy and laughter. In the Notebook, Nick Cassavetes made an effort in avoiding a sentimental and sappy romance movie. Principally, the movie tries to pass the message that everything may not be bright and sunny but it can still remain beautiful and romantic. Simirlaly, Michael Sucsy ensures that the Vow is acted in a simple and friendly manner, with use of symbols, rhetoric, beautiful metaphors that highlighted the love between Paige and Leo (Carpenter 35).
In addition, both movies are inspired by real-life events. The Vow is based on a real tragedy that happened to Kim and Krickitt Carpenter. In the accident, Kim was hurt and his wife lost her memory. Despite these happenings, her husband stuck around. Simirlaly, The Notebook is based on Nicholas’ grandparents love story. The bits and pieces from the real life of Nicholas was converted to the movie. Also, both movies involve characters from different social positions in the society (Sparks 24).
In both films, the script provides us with an opportunity to see Hollywood sweet heart Rachel McAdams in a story of ill-fated lover whose relationship prevails despite the obviously overwhelming obstacles. In The Vow, the actress is paired with Channing Tatum, a character that is considered different from The Notebook’s Ryan Gosling. However, both stories seek to express the theme of undying and endless love (Carpenter 30).
External Factors affecting relationships
The conception of how fortune is used in both “The Notebook” and “The Vow” to bring out the impression of how the outside forces impact the couples’ romantic destiny is exemplary.
Both couples, in “the vow” and in “the notebook”, are in love and willing to live the rest of their lives together. Noah and Allie in “The Notebook” were spending a beautiful summer together. As their love grew, one can easily speculate that their love story would have a happy ending. However, their courtship was short lived after Allie's family and their socio-economic disparities dismantled their union (Wasowski 25). “The Vow” also shows the dictation of the environment on one’s fate and destiny. The movie tells the story of two lovers who divorced due to pressure Paige’s parents.
In summary, both movies are more than romantic films because they how a person’s destiny can be dictated by external aspects of one’s environment. Moreover, the movies maintain that an individual is the fundamental determinant of his/her fate, but there is a chance that outside factors will change the course of that person’s destiny in life. The paper compares and contrasts the two movies by focusing on the settings, character development, stylistic devices and themes. Whereas the two films have different plot settings, the ultimate lesson remains the same. Stylistically, the two movies are different, but feature the prominent use of a single technique, which is pivotal to the superiority of the two movies as love stories.
Works Cited
Carpenter, Kim et al. The Vow. Detroit, Gale, Cengage learning, 2012.
Wasowski, R.P. Cliffsnotes on Nicholas Sparks' the Notebook. Hoboken, N.J., Wiley Pub., 2013.
Sparks, Nicholas. The Notebook. New York: Warner Books, 2000. Internet resource.
