In life we must all make choices. Sometimes choices are easy, far more often they are very difficult. And when love is thrown into the mix, those difficult choices can become nigh impossible. Such is the basic scenario of both The Notebook and Spider-Man 2. In both movies, the main female character must choose between two men, one of whom is an upstanding military man with considerable social standing, and the other is our scruffy hero.
The Notebook, directed by Nick Cassavetes and adapted from the novel by Nicholas Sparks, is a love story by flashback. An elderly man reads to his alzheimer’s-afflicted wife the story of their young romance, not revealing until the end whether she chose Noah Calhoun, the protagonist, or Lon Hammond, the wealthy officer. Although the adaptation of the movie tones down a few of the details in the book, the story is no weaker for it.
The acting in Notebook is superb, both by Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling (the young Allie and Noah, respectively) and by James Garner and Gena Rowlands, the elderly couple. This movie is old fashioned lump-in-your-throat love story at its finest.
Spider-Man 2 is, quite obviously, a very different type of movie, surrounding its love story with lots of action instead of, well, more love story. The sequel to the 2002 Spider-Man, this movie has your friendly neighborhood webslinger battling Doctor Octopus, a fusion scientist who accidentally has four powerful mechanical arms fused to his back. The two conflicts of Peter Parker vs. Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson’s choice run hand in hand, intertwining themselves throughout the movie.
Worth mentioning are the special effects of Spider-Man 2, which are just as fabulous as those of the first movie. Shots of the arachnid superhero flying between buildings are always a welcome sight. Also, the CG imagery of Octavius’ fusion as a miniature sun lended at least a modicum of plausibility to an otherwise inaccurately depicted phenomenon.
The sheer poignancy of The Notebook is unmatched by anything in the recent history of cinema. The initial summer fling takes place in the late 1930s, and so it seems like a simpler time to current audiences; thus the movie reduces the love story to its most basic elements.
The two female leads, Mary Jane Watson and Allie Nelson, are very similar. Both have social standing: Watson has her acting career and Nelson the inherited wealth and weight of an old-money Southern family. Both begin their romances with the protagonist in youth and meet the upstanding military gentlemen later on; both resist returning to the scruffy hero because he either actually or only apparently let her down, then at the last minute run back to him.
By no means are these similarities indicative of a dry idea well in Hollywood, although there are other signs of that, to be sure. Rather, the two movies should be considered as variations on a theme, as they both employ the universal theme of choosing the right person.
The Notebook and Spider-Man 2 both make clear that the male protagonist has either failed to support or appeared to fail to support the woman he loves. In The Notebook, young Noah Calhoun wrote Allie Nelson every day for a year after their summer fling, but Nelson’s mother intercepted the letters, and so Nelson concluded that Calhoun no longer loved her. In Spider-Man 2, Peter Parker’s commitment to being Spider-Man prevents him from being a presence in Watson’s life, and after he fails to attend her play she tells him that he is “an empty seat” to her.
Despite these disappointments, the leading lady joins the protagonist in the end, sending the message that choosing the right person is ultimately a choice of the heart, and such choices must be made no matter what the cost. Nelson’s mother said it best, “I hope you make the right choice.”
Overall, both movies were very well done in almost every respect, and are more than worth the price of admission.
