The first big tearjerker of the summer, The Notebook, has arrived, offering plenty of pleasure to those who aren't afraid to cry in a movie theatre. Helping the film rise more than a notch above the standard melodrama are performances by a bunch of veteran and young artistes, particularly by Gena Rowlands.

Rowlands is also the mother of the film's director Nick Cassavetes.

Having tried to steer his movie career in the same direction as his father John Cassavetes (A Woman Under The Influence), with little offbeat films like She's So Lovely, the son quickly embraced the highly melodramatic John Q a few years ago, which was a hit.

His new film, The Notebook, is based on a hugely successful novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks.

Readers of the novel may not find anything significantly surprising here. But how many of them, one wonders, expected serious performances by the young actors who bring out the passion and disappointments in their love far more eloquently than in the novel?   

Most of the film revolves around an old man (James Garner), who regularly reads from a faded notebook to a woman (Gena Rowlands) suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. He takes the viewers back to the days when the romance between Noah and Allie (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) is disrupted not only because of World War II, but also the manipulation of Allie's class-conscious mother (Joan Allen). It is not difficult, even for readers ignorant of Sparks's book, to imagine who the old woman is.

Noah likes to read and enjoys manual work. He is a poor young man while Allie is an outgoing and ambitious rich young woman. They are attracted to each other. Allie's mother Anne manipulates the daughter toward the affluent Lon (James Marsden).

The complications that follow are quite predictable, but even then, the confrontation between Anne and Allie over Noah's letters that Anne has been hiding is quite dramatic because of the sterling performances of the two actresses. The climax, again, is unsurprising to those who haven't read the novel. Yet it is hard not to surrender to the film's sentimentality.

Like his father, Nick Cassavetes has a gift for handling his artistes with care. The star cast also helps him generously. Garner brings the right amount of anguish and hope to his character, never allowing the part to degenerate into a corny character. Towering above him is Rowlands. Her glow throughout the film never fades even as she lets us know that the emotional trauma she faces each day cannot go away.  

Allen, yet another veteran who hasn't got her due from fans, nudges her villainous role into a three-dimensional character.

The veteran artistes are expected to perform well, but the warmth; honesty and heartaches Gosling and McAdams bring to their parts make a significant difference to The Notebook.  

McAdams, who was the vain girl with a cruel streak in her in the recent hit Mean Girls, is a sweet-natured and ravishing young woman here. And the difference between her previous role and Allie is pleasantly surprising. Give her better scripts and watch her become one of the best young actresses of her generation.

CREDITS:
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner, Gena Rowlands, Joan Allen, James Marsden, Sam Shepard
Director: Nick Cassavetes
Writer: Adapted by Jan Sardi from the novel by Nicholas Sparks
Running time: 2 hours
Rating: PG-13 for brief sexuality
Distributor: New Line Cinema