50x3: The Notebook (E-2)

For my second movie from my wife we took in a little romantic film that was all the rage a few years back. It also pretty much put Ryan Gosling on the map as an A-list star - and just check out his last few years in film.

Gosling stars as Noah Calhoun in The Notebook. Noah is part of a story that Duke (James Garner) is telling a friend of his (Gena Rowlands) in a nursing home.

The story goes that Noah sees a girl, Allison Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) at a carnival and is immediately head-over-heels for her. Allison is in town for the summer with her rich family and is friends with Sara Tuffington (Heather Wahlquist) - who happens to be dating Noah's best friend, Fin (Kevin Connolly).

Noah's first attempt to ask Allison out is shot down rather quickly. So he decides he needs to ask her out in a much more extravagant way - by hanging from a ferris wheel. And, she begrudgingly accepts his proposal to 'save' his life.

The two of them, though, hit it off rather quickly. And soon they are pretty inseparable. He takes her to meet his father - and she takes him to meet her family.

Immediately it is seen that her family does not approve of this courtship - but thinking it was just a summer romance they allow it to play out.

One night Noah takes Allison to an abandoned house which he notifies her that he hopes to eventually purchase and fix up for them. She plays along and tells him of things that she would want for the house. Though, he is not joking.

As the night progresses the two of them make a makeshift bed and appear that they will make love for the first time - though she stops it. Moments later Fin busts through the door saying that Allison's family had called the police because there daughter was missing.

Allison and her family argue in a room as Noah sits in another room - and it is here that for the first time he finds out that they believe he is not good enough for their daughter. And, he decides to break it off so that she can move on with her life without him.

Noah, though, writes a letter to Allison each day for an entire year. Even after enlisting in the Army and losing his best friend Fin in the field of battle. However, he never hears from Allison as her mother intercepts each letter before she is able to get them.

Now, Allison is forced to move on and becomes engaged to Lon Hammond, Jr. (James Marsden). Noah, though, thanks to his father purchases the abandoned house and fixes it up with all of the special requests from Allison.

A photograph is taken of the house and placed in a newspaper that Allison sees - and all of her feelings for Noah come rushing back. She takes time away from Lon and goes to see Noah - rekindling their romance. But soon, she is forced to choose between her fiance and the man of her dreams.

This film is obviously a 'chick flick' as I believe most Nicholas Sparks films are. But, there is definitely something that men can take from this as well. Us lucky ones will find someone out there that we would do anything and everything for.

I pretty much saw what was happening in the movie from the start - and I didn't know anything really about the movie heading in. It was pretty obvious. And, I still liked seeing how things came together. Pretty heartbreaking, and in a way sweet.

Gosling and McAdams were great, and they had great chemistry together as well. I really enjoy Connolly as an actor, and despite not being in the film much, I enjoyed him.

I guess we can thank The Notebook and Gosling/McAdams for starting off this Nicholas Sparks phenomenon - seems like we are getting a new film almost every year now. Guess the wife will want me to get caught up now. We'll see.

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37/50x2: Lars and the Real Girl

I never understood how Ryan Gosling became such a great actor. In fact, I just did a quick look at his resume and I had seen a grand total of two of his films before before watching this one - Remember the Titans and Murder by Numbers. Believe me, I want to check out a handful of the others, but have not been able to yet.

So, with only those two films as my guide - and he was pretty good in both, just not megastar - I was really confused on where all the fuss was coming from. Then I watched Lars and the Real Girl.

Gosling stars as Lars Lindstrom, a man who is unable to interact with others very well and is pretty much socially awkward. He lives in a converted garage on his parents land that his brother Gus (Paul Schneider) and his wife Karin (Emily Mortimer) now live in after the death of his father.

Despite constant tries to help with Lars' issues, Karin is turned down at almost every opportunity - and on the rare occasion that he may accept an invite for dinner, Lars is out of there as quickly as he can. He is a regular at a local church and has a job, where a co-worker Margo (Kelli Garner) has an obvious crush on him. But, he runs from any real interaction with anyone.

One day a co-worker shows Lars a website for lifelike dolls. And, for some reason Lars orders one and names her Bianca. He introduces her to his brother and sister-in-law as a friend. He talks to her as though she is real - concerned about his health Gus and Karin talk to Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson) the family physician. They convince Lars to take Bianca in for a check-up, and while she 'rests' he talks to Dagmar.

Though it is obviously odd, because the town loves Lars so much they accept Bianca as one of their own. And soon Lars says she is his girlfriend - and Bianca actually begins to have a social life. Thanks to this, Lars also begins to interact more with the people in his town.

I will not spoil this movie for anyone. It was just amazing to watch and I loved every minute of it. There is a reason revealed in the film about why Lars has become the way he is and it truly makes sense. Though the doll is creepy, because it actually does look pretty darn real - Lars never uses it for its intended purpose. It is merely there as first a friend, then a girlfriend - and he treats it with respect.

Gosling was incredible in this role and I am now beginning to see just what all of the fuss is about. I realize that around the same time he was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Half Nelson. He has become a talented actor and I can't wait to start digging into some of his other work.

The other actors were also great. I have only seen Garner in a few things, but I really like what she brings to the table. In some of the things Mortimer has been in she has sometimes annoyed me, but I liked her in this role. And, Schneider - I don't know I just really consider him a poor-man's John Krasinski. I think his role on Parks and Rec had a lot to do with that image - as he was probably brought in as the 'Jim' character. I just kept picturing Krasinski as the character here, and as good as Schneider was I felt Krasinski could have been better.

A touching and well written story. If you haven't seen it, I suggest you check it out.

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LWITM: Remember the Titans

Today, I am again at a loss for a truly decent blog posting. Nothing has truly transpired in my life worth writing about in the past few days - and I have not seen a movie, nor finished a television series.

So, I felt it was time for another Look Who's In That Movie (LWITM).

Today's movie: Remember the Titans.

The major star of the film is Denzel Washington, who was obviously a well known talent well before signing up to play Coach Herman Boone in this film. Will Patton, who plays assistant coach Bill Yoast in the movie, was also well respected in the film world before this movie.

However, most of the players and secondary characters were relatively unknown at the time of this movie - which was released in 2000.

A list of some of the characters who, today, are up-and-coming stars.

• Wood Harris - Played Julius Campbell in the film, a pivotal character in the film, who helped pave the way for the combining of the white/black football players. Harris has not blown up as of yet, but was a key character in the hit series The Wire playing Avon Barksdale. He currently has five different films releasing this year.
• Ryan Hurst - Played Gerry Bertier in the film, the other part (along with Campbell) that formed a friendship helping the combining of the two schools. Hurst has been in a handful of movies since Remember the Titans, as well as being a star of a few television series' like Wanted.
• Donald Faison - Played running back turned defensive standout Petey Jones in the movie. Faison had been in a few movies like Clueless and Can't Hardly Wait, but he was still a couple years away from making it big as Turk on Scrubs.
• Ethan Suplee - Played lineman Louie Lastik in the movie, a player with a heart of gold and brains of mush. Suplee was also known before this movie for his role on Boy Meets World as well as his time in Kevin Smith movies Mallrats, Chasing Amy and Dogma. He has blown up even larger with his role as Randy Hickey in My Name Is Earl.
• Kip Pardue - Played Ronnie 'Sunshine' Bass, the replacement quarterback from California, who his teammates mistake for being homosexual. Pardue hasn't become very large in Hollywood, but has still been plenty busy with roles in television and in movies.

The final three on this list have become huge since this movie was released.

• Ryan Gosling - Played Alan Bosley, a cornerback who had a hard time keeping up with a lot of the faster opponents. Gosling has become a major Hollywood player with large roles in such films as The Notebook, The Believer, Lars & The Real Girl and was nominated for an Oscar for his work on Half Nelson.
• Kate Bosworth - Played Emma Hoyt, Bertier's girlfriend who had a hard time accepting the fact of the races mixing at first. Bosworth made a name for herself in movies such as Blue Crush and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton. She has since been Lois Lane in Superman Returns and a card counter in the fun movie 21.
• Hayden Panattierre - Played Sheryl Yoast, daughter of Bill Yoast and football enthusiast. Panattierre was only 10 years old while filming this movie, but has since become a huge star thanks to her role as Claire in the hit television series Heroes.

Well that was LWITM #2. A look back at a pretty terrific movie filled with (at the time) relatively unknown actors. But, trying to get this group together for this film today might prove a difficult task.

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