Whatever You Do This Valentine's Day - Make Sure You DON'T Watch This Film

Ahh, cinema romances. Frequently depicted and sometimes idealised, love has found many forms of expression through the Seventh Art. And some films even make us practically depressed... One of them even received top prize at Cannes because it depressed the specialists.

Whatever You Do This Valentine's Day - Make Sure You DON'T Watch This Film
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Whatever You Do This Valentine's Day - Make Sure You DON'T Watch This Film

The Notebook, you know?

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For those who have forgotten (and that should never happen), we’re talking about a film that came out in 2004 and starred Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. It was a relationship-killer just as much as it was a cult film, according to couples specialists questioned by Time Out magazine.

The pitch

Imagine the love of your life. Now imagine a heart-breaking story which begins during a summer fling, followed by an equally heart-breaking separation, which turns into a real obstacle course for Noah (Ryan), who is ready for everything to get his beautiful Allie back (Rachel). She is engaged to another man (who she thinks she loves but who she loves much less than the very sexy character played by Ryan). The two lovers reunite many years afterwards, and everything (again) becomes extremely beautiful. The Notebook treats a subject which could become a reality for any of us: Alzheimer’s. Because, at the end of the film, we discover that after many years Allie is affected by the disease. There again, Noah reacts remarkably. Every day, he reads the story of how they met to the love of his life...

Idealised love = dangerous love?

It’s great for sure, but for specialists, it’s an overly perfect vision of love. While Noah’s behaviour could seem ‘psychotic,’ it is understood instead as a proof of love (the re-telling of memories past, the heaps of letters, etc...). Except, in real life, such behaviour in a man doesn’t exist. And if it does exist, let’s admit it, many women would get scared and ask for a restraining order from a judge.

The problem? The Notebook has a power over women, encouraging many of them to have expectations that are MUCH too high. The same women could also be capable of ending a romantic relationship (that others would only have dreamed of having) due to a lack of perfection, breaking the hearts of perfectly sane men. And at the end, they are left alone with their expectations.

It’s important not to forget that while films can be educational, what we see on the big screen is FICTIONAL. So try not to hold real life to the same standards.

Check out the video above for more!

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