Nick Cassavetes
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Connections, in both directions
Written and directed by Nick Cassavetes, and based on a sordid tale of abduction, murder and international flight involving the improbably named FBI most-wanted-listee Jesse James Hollywood, the film belongs in the same category as Bully, Mean Creek and River's Edge.
Thanks to permissive parents, easy access to drugs and money and moral guidance that apparently came from Al Pacino's "Scarface" and gangsta rap videos, they grew up to be low-lifes who spend their days getting high, basking in the California sun and generally carrying on as if they were on some sort of twisted reality show, perhaps "Less Than Zero: The Next Generation."
Scarface may be the gangsta rapper’s movie of choice (and you know these dudes knew that), but Alpha Dog has no layers of meditation, genre-centric or otherwise; rather, it feels like how these kids would portray themselves if they could, i.e. with a complete lack of irony (Foster's ridiculously histrionic performance notwithstanding) or insight, pandering to the mirror-kissing ethos of youthful posturing it should be reflecting.
Johnny has a "Scarface" poster on his wall, and he emulates that character in his business decisions.
Sex and the City (2008)
Directed by Michael Patrick King
influenced The Other Woman (2014)
Themes Dialogue
It reminds me quite a bit of “Sex and the City.”
There are seeds of “Sex and the City” in the film, especially in light of the way the women talk about the opposite sex, but even that concept seems too outdated and overdone for it to serve a purpose.
But Melissa K. Stack’s script has snap and crackle to go with the pop, making this female wish-fulfillment fantasy an “Eat, Pray, Revenge” that delivers the punches that two “Sex and the City” movies never could.
(Veteran costume designer Patricia Field of " Sex and the City " and " The Devil Wears Prada " fame makes these characters’ wardrobes pop distinctively.)
The Bridges of Madison County (1995)
Directed by Clint Eastwood
influenced The Notebook (2004)
Themes
Sparks has commented that he would never write a love story about adultery, like Robert James Waller’s The Bridges of Madison County, adultery being in his words “anathema to me.” Apparently, fornication isn’t in the same class.
In the past decade or so, Hollywood has given us precious few, with ones like "The Painted Veil," "Atonement," and "The Bridges of Madison County" among my own personal favorites.
This type of framework has been a stumbling block for solid Hollywood entertainment before, recently in Saving Private Ryan (the clunky narrative of the Normandy visit) and The Bridges of Madison County (the reading of notes and letters).
The performance is chilling while Glusman’s creepy eyes and devilish grin recall Andrew Robinson’s “Scorpio” from Don Siegel’s “Dirty Harry”.
It’s an art film dressed up as The Notebook.
(I genuinely enjoy The Notebook, so don’t come at me. You know what I mean, don’t act like you don’t).
We’ve seen elements of this tale as old as time in The Notebook, Sweet Home Alabama, Made of Honor, and more.
McAdams ("Mean Girls") displays a passion that rivals Natalie Wood's gut-wrenching constancy in "Splendor in the Grass."
Half of "The Notebook" is a silly, syrupy romance about a pair of star-crossed lovers whose powerful attraction is threatened by such reliable obstacles class differences, mean old parents who just don?t understand and a world war-basically the kind of story that was already beginning to seem shopworn and cliched back in the days of "A Summer Place" and "Splendor in the Grass".
Fans of the disposable adaptations of Nicholas Sparks’ novels (“The Notebook,” “Safe Haven”) may see this as another movie in the same vein: pretty, empty, love conquers all.
His father was the late John Cassavetes, who for years financed his own deeply personal and naturalistic films (Faces, Minnie and Moskowitz, A Woman Under the Influence, Gloria), often co-starring wife Rowlands.
There's a distinctly "Sparks-ian" feel to the movie, and its awkward framing device recalls the one from The Notebook .
No doubt the fiction we witness could be a best-seller along the lines of The Notebook or Dear John , but a landmark prize-winner?
The scenes recall "The Notebook," "Madison County" and a hundred other bars of soap.
As he recalls his youth, ardent movie watchers will draw comparisons to "The Notebook."
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Directed by Josh Boone
influenced by The Notebook (2004), My Sister's Keeper (2009)
Characters Themes
It’s impossible not to compare him to Ryan Gosling’s effectiveness in 2004’s romantic gem “The Notebook” with Rachel McAdams.
The film begins with an apology that this is not like those other generic “I’ve got cancer” weepies ( My Sister’s Keeper , etc).
The Longest Ride (2015)
Directed by George Tillman Jr.
influenced by The Notebook (2004)
Plot Themes
Back in the past, though, Huston and Chaplin show hints of timeless charm, enlivening the material not unlike the way Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling almost sold the hokum of The Notebook .
Like “The Notebook,” the Sparks' film adaptation that remains the best of a bad lot, “The Longest Ride” has two parallel love stories.
This second romance, recalling the earlier Sparks weeper The Notebook, comes courtesy of Alan Alda’s lovable codger Ira, whom Luke and Sophia rescue after he crashes his car through a highway guardrail.
As in The Notebook and that one with James Marsden, The Longest Ride switches between a romance in the present and a parallel relationship in the past.
Spurred on by the success of 2004's The Notebook , the writings of Nicholas Sparks have spawned a string of drippy romances including Dear John , The Lucky One and Safe Haven , with George Tillman Jr’s film marking the tenth entry in the series.
Because author Nicholas Sparks ("The Best of Me," "The Notebook") loves hopping between past and present regardless of if it makes sense, the 128-minute "The Longest Ride" also features Sophia becoming pals with an ailing old man (Alan Alda).
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)
Directed by Olivia Newman
influenced by The Notebook (2004)
Plot Themes
Tate’s misunderstood absence does, indeed, feel like that period of time in The Notebook when Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams) were separated.
A rushed scene towards the end (with characters growing old together) tries to capture a snippet of the emotionality in 2004’s The Notebook .
Critics eager to tear into THE LAST SONG, yet another three-hanky picture based on the works of “A Walk to Remember,” “The Notebook” and “Dear John” author Nicholas Sparks, ought to take a look at film history.
He's the novelist/screenwriter who has given us "The Notebook" and "Dear John," among others.
Dear John, The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe are examples of his familiarity with the workings of the tear duct.
With “The Notebook,” “Nights in Rodanthe,” “Message in a Bottle,” “A Walk to Remember,” and the recent “Dear John,” Sparks has hit pay dirt, and it’s hard to blame the guy for essentially recycling the same elements of romance and doomsday to make millions from readers all over the world.
It's the worst of both worlds as Disney cash cow Miley Cyrus makes the most dubious "dramatic" debut of any singer since Britney Spears in "The Last Song" -- a risible Nicholas Sparks tear-jerker that makes the recent, similar film derived from Sparks' "Dear John" look like "The Notebook" by comparison.
It's about on a par with the Mandy Moore starring "A Walk to Remember" ("The Notebook," of course, retains the crown), which is the movie Cyrus cited as the type she wanted to be in.
Screenwriters Ann Peacock and John Romano based their screenplay for the movie on a novel by best-selling author Nicholas Sparks, who previously provided Hollywood with "Message in a Bottle," "A Walk to Remember," and "The Notebook."
The actors, who’ve been paired before (Unfaithful), have chemistry, and they give their characters complexity beyond the made-for-TV direction by George C. Wolfe and the weepy material adapted from the Nicholas Sparks (The Notebook) novel.
I will admit a certain fondness for two previous Sparks' adaptations, Message in a Bottle and The Notebook , but this isn't in the same league.
However, the film version is far from the moving and heartfelt tugs Sparks’ The Notebook created when brought to the screen.
“Nights in Rodanthe” is the latest big screen adaptation of the sub-Erich Segal stylings of best-selling hack Nicholas Sparks, who was also responsible for such cloying crapola as “Message in a Bottle, “ “A Walk to Remember” and the monstrous “The Notebook.,“…
Forever My Girl (2018)
Directed by Bethany Ashton Wolf
influenced by The Notebook (2004)
Plot Themes
The premise carries more than a whiff of the collected works of Nicholas Sparks; his novels (such as “The Notebook” and “Dear John”) have ushered in a whole film subgenre of separated lovers who must grow and hurt and learn to love again, because the hand of destiny or something is in play.
Even if you're not a fan of Sparks movies ("The Notebook," "Dear John," "Safe Haven" plus others), "Forever My Girl" offers several appealing elements.
It’s an effective, get-out-your-Kleenex model, and the number of books it has powered has been nearly matched by the movie adaptations — “Message in a Bottle,” “Nights in Rodanthe” and “The Notebook” among them — it has inspired.
The Lucky One aspires to but never reaches the grandly melodramatic heights of the über-Sparks adaptation The Notebook, though a reconciliation embrace in an outdoor shower of some sort seems deliberately staged to evoke the earlier feature.
Sparks may have gotten lucky with “The Notebook,” but “The Lucky One” seems only to refer to his status as a successful writer of romantic pap.
Any filmmaker who takes on a “based on a story by Nicholas Sparks” project knows that comparisons to The Notebook will be swift and decisive.
A couple of months ago, I was writing up my review of the melodramatic gumdrop known as "The Vow" and found myself in the faintly ridiculous position of offering a public apology to none other than best-selling hack author Nicholas Sparks, the creator of such shameless soapers as "The Notebook," "Message in a Bottle," "A Walk to Remember," "The Last Song" and others.
Directed by Scott Hicks (“Shine”), with Will Fetters adapting the Nicholas Sparks novel, this is the latest and the best Sparks-inspired film to come along since “The Notebook” won over hearts, if not minds, in 2004.
The Time Traveler's Wife (2009)
Directed by Robert Schwentke
influenced by The Notebook (2004)
Themes
It's difficult to say what may have transpired between Rubin's final draft of The Time Traveler's Wife and the actual beginning of production, but I suspect that as soon as Rachel McAdams was cast, the emphasis went from making another Ghost to making another The Notebook .
It's clear almost immediately that screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin - best known for penning unapologetically sentimental flicks like 1990's Ghost and 1993's My Life - is primarily interested in exploring the more overtly maudlin elements within the source material, which ensures that the film will probably be received best by those viewers with a high tolerance for syrupy love stories (ie this is more The Notebook than Timecop).
With that film’s female lead (Rachel McAdams) in tow, The Time Traveler’s Wife is like The Notebook with a sci-fi twist, and the mostly generic direction by Robert Schwentke (Flightplan) does nothing to dispel my theory.
And Rachel McAdams of "The Notebook" is gently charming -- a helpful attribute when playing such a potentially unsympathetic heroine.
As adapted by Jan Sardi and Jeremy Leven and directed by Nick Cassavetes, Rowlands's son, "The Notebook" is two movies, one dubiously hitched to the other, like "On Golden Pond" stuffed inside some young-adult romance.
Call it mature love, if that doesn't conjure images from On Golden Pond or Harold and Maude.