The notebook

'The notebook' is a romantic drama directed by Nick Cassavetes, with a screenplay adapted by Jan Sardi from the eponymous book by Nicholas Sparks. Although it had a modest release, the film has become a cult classic that gradually gained traction at the box office, grossing 117 million against a budget of 29 million.

The plot takes us to a nursing home, where a resident named Duke reads a story to another woman in the same facility. We are transported back to the interwar period, when in a small town in South Carolina young carpenter Noah Calhoun falls in love with Allie Hamilton, a 17-year-old girl from a wealthy family. Her parents disapprove of the relationship and forbid them from seeing each other.

Noah writes letters to his beloved every day for a year, but her mother intercepts them, and Allie is unaware of this. After a year, Noah gives up and enlists as a soldier in World War II, while Allie works helping the wounded in a hospital. There she meets Lon, with whom she gets engaged. However, after several years without knowing about each other, Noah and Allie's lives unexpectedly cross paths again...

Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams portray Noah and Allie, while James Garner plays Duke and Gena Rowlands is the woman in the nursing home. In 2012, Disney released an extended version of the film in the United States with several previously deleted scenes.