Poster © New Line Cinema. Shown at reduced size for review and commentary.
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GenreDrama & Romance
RatedPG-13
Runtime2 hr 3 mins
ReleasedJune 25, 2004
StreamingSee Where to Watch
DirectorNick Cassavetes
StarringRyan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Garner
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The Notebook (2004)
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| iIMDb Profile | %Rotten Tomatoes |
| WWikipedia | LLetterboxd |
| TTMDB | +Add to Top 8 |
| The Notebook's Details | |
| Genre | Drama & Romance |
| Rated | PG-13 |
| Released | 05/20/2004 (Seattle); 06/25/2004 (United States) |
| Streaming | See Where to Watch on this page. |
| Running Time | 2 hr 3 mins |
| Budget | $29M (reported) |
| Box Office | Updated daily from Box Office Mojo. See the numbers below. |
| Based On | The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| The Notebook's Interests | |
| General | Ferris wheels, summer carnivals, porch swings, old Southern houses, a notebook with a worn cover. |
| Music | Aaron Zigman, with a piano theme built for ugly crying. |
| Movies | A Walk to Remember (2002). Another Nicholas Sparks book, more tissues. |
| Television | This Is Us. Same time-jumping love story, same tissue budget. |
| Heroes | Gena Rowlands. Her son Nick Cassavetes directs her here, and she's incredible. |
| The Notebook's Crew | |
| Director | Nick Cassavetes |
| Writers | Jeremy Leven |
| Producers | Mark Johnson, Lynn Harris |
| Cinematography | Robert Fraisse |
| Music | Aaron Zigman |
| Edited By | Alan Heim |
| Production | Gran Via |
| Distributed By | New Line Cinema |
Noah’s big romantic move is dangling off a Ferris wheel until Allie agrees to a date, which isn’t romance so much as a threat with a carnival soundtrack. The Notebook is built on moves like that. Noah’s grand gestures are a lot, Allie’s mom is pure country club disapproval, and James Marsden plays the nicest fiancé in movie history, which makes the love triangle feel rigged. Critics weren’t sold, 54% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences didn’t care and gave it an A CinemaScore, and honestly the audience gets it. Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams fight like they mean it and make up like they mean it more. The rowboat in the rain is the most famous downpour in romance for a reason. Gena Rowlands and James Garner, in the nursing home scenes, quietly steal the whole thing. A 6.4 because the chemistry is real and the plot is pure soap opera. $42 says you call it too cheesy at the Ferris wheel and go real quiet by the end.
What works: Gosling and McAdams have real, messy chemistry, and Gena Rowlands and James Garner bring quiet weight to the framing story.
What doesn’t: The love triangle is rigged, the side characters are thin, and the melodrama gets laid on extremely thick.
Who it’s for: Anyone who wants a big, unapologetic weepie on a rainy night, and anyone who pretends they don’t.
Spoilers
Duke is Noah, and the woman he reads to is Allie, who has dementia and wrote the story down so he could read it back to her. She remembers him for a few precious minutes, and the next morning the two of them are found together, having passed away peacefully in their sleep.
At a nursing home, a man named Duke (James Garner) reads aloud from a worn notebook to a woman (Gena Rowlands) who can't hold on to her own memories. The story he reads: Seabrook Island, South Carolina, 1940. Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling), a lumber mill worker with no money, spots rich girl Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) at a summer carnival and does something extremely dumb on a Ferris wheel to get a date. It works. They fall hard and fast. Her mother Anne (Joan Allen) is very much not on board. Nick Cassavetes directs. One hundred twenty-three minutes, keep the tissues close.
Anyone who'll slow dance in an empty street at midnight. Bring a notebook.
| Ryan Gosling | Noah Calhoun |
| Rachel McAdams | Allison "Allie" Calhoun |
| Sam Shepard | Frank Calhoun |
| Joan Allen | Anne Hamilton |
| James Marsden | Lon Hammond Jr |
| Kevin Connolly | Fin |
| David Thornton | John Hamilton |
| Jamie Brown | Martha Shaw |
| Heather Wahlquist | Sara Tuffington |
| Ed Grady | Harry |
| Obba Babatunde | Bandleader |
| Starletta DuPois | Nurse Esther |
| Paul Johansson | Anne Hamilton's ex-boyfriend |
- (cur | prev) 14:30, 17 October 2026 DataBot +480 Numbers refreshed: Worldwide box office $122.7M; Domestic box office $81.4M; Opening weekend $13.5M; Profit / loss (est.) +$17.8M; Rotten Tomatoes 54%; CinemaScore A; box office chart updated; RT 54% (182 reviews); Metacritic 53 / 100; CinemaScore A; IMDb users 7.8 / 10 (704,758 votes); movie.guru score 6.7.
- (cur | prev) 12:00, 17 October 2026 DataBot +2,000 Profile created from Wikipedia and Box Office Mojo: cast, crew, release dates, budget, official trailer.