The Notebook is a classic. A marvellously written classic. Nicholas Sparks is a widely acclaimed romance writer most readers are in love with. His books are so good many of them have been adapted into movies. One such book is The Notebook.
I first watched this when I was about 14 or 15 and it stayed with me. It’s a stunning love story about two lovers who fight to stay together despite the world(mostly their families) telling them they don’t belong together. At some point, they’re separated but somehow, many years later, they find a way back to each other. They had such raw, open feelings for each other it hurt to watch. At the same time, it was impossible to not watch.
I’ve seen a lot of romance movies. Many have hit just as much as The Notebook did but very few stayed with me over the years. Such a powerful love is said to be almost impossible to find. Many will say it doesn’t exist. Many say it’s unrealistic and the 25% logical part of my brain would agree with them but The Notebook lets you dream a little and hope that you get to experience even a fraction of the love Allie and Noah felt for each other.
If you haven’t seen it yet, you can watch The Notebook here. If you have but want to experience something similar to it or you just need a good cry, keep reading.
Titanic
I think Titanic might take the crown for saddest romance movie ever made. I have watched this movie over and over and over again and every single time I have bawled like a 2-year-old who can’t find her favourite toy. Such loss, such pain isn’t something you can just ignore. As I write this, the scene stuck in my head is a woman holding her children in bed, telling them a bedtime story while the ship slowly yet surely floods around them. She knows they’re going to die. She accepted it but she didn’t want her kids to be scared.
As many know, (because this is another classic. It’s like a right of passage to watch this at least once in your lifetime), this isn’t the main story, the story we watch and get sucked into is Jack and Rose’s love story. An unlikely pair who find each other and see each other the way many haven’t in years. They make the mistake of falling for each other and we’re forced to watch how they lose each other in a thousand different ways.
If you can sit through this without shedding a single tear, you’re probably a cold-hearted snow queen who needs to return to her ice castle👀.
A Jazzman’s Blues
From the minute I saw the trailer I exclaimed, “Oh my days, THE NOTEBOOK! They’re just black, they added a bit of music and the movie is set some time before it”. Then I watched it. Yes, it’s very similar to The Notebook. A poor boy falls in a love with a girl who he couldn’t really have. The girl’s mother takes her away ‘for her own good’. The boy writes letters to her for as long as he can. Eventually, they see each other again, many years later and it turns out the girl never got the letters. It is a lot like The Notebook but it is also so much more. The Notebook didn’t have rape, beautiful music, addiction, incest, fratricide, murder and so much more. It had classism but that has never hit as much as racism. This movie took The Notebook and added a shit ton of agony to all the pain that was already there. Then it said, take. Choke this down. Beautiful storytelling. Beautiful acting. Beautiful pacing. Beautiful music. Painful, painful story.
Me Before You
The first time I realised the meaning of this title I cried. He was telling her, ‘with all my heart I love you but I just have to come first’. It’s a beautiful show of self-love and choice but he was also saying, ‘I do love you but it is not enough. You are not enough’. It is infinitely one of the most painful things anyone would ever have to process.
THIS MOVIE!!
This movie was like an orgasm that hurt…in a good-ish way. It was like being forced to drink boiling water and being thankful for it. Like The Notebook, it’s a stunning love story and just like The Notebook, many will think it deserved a happier ending.
Elisa And Marcela
From the separation by parents, to the letters sent over the years, to finding a way back to each other, this is clearly the Spanish and sapphic version of The Notebook… with a little twist.
Spectacular acting and poignant storytelling. It is one of the most alluring yet agonising things I have ever put myself through. You think The Notebook is painful? I can assure you, you haven’t begun to feel pain.
The Fault In Our Stars
Death-an enigma many fear. Cancer patients? Most of them greet her like an old friend.
Hazel Grace is a cancer patient who’s living on borrowed time and she knows it. She calls herself a grenade that’s going to blow up someday, eliminating everything in her wake. She’s doing her best to live the life she has left but she’s mostly just waiting. Waiting for the end… and then she meets Augustus. She wasn’t prepared for the rollercoaster ride she went on after that.
The Fault In Our Stars is another adaptation of a book by another widely acclaimed romance writer; John Green. He’s one of those rare authors(like Nicholas Sparks) that have a way of pulling on your heartstrings so taut you have no choice but to follow him anywhere he leads. His words leave scars on your heart and over time you get to go back and trace them.
This movie isn’t exactly like The Notebook. What they really have in common is an unexpected meeting, parents who don’t exactly approve, some deaths here and there and a spectacular love story that leaves you gasping for more.
One Day
This isn’t like The Notebook in the way some of the other movies on this list are. There are no letters nor are there any family trying to keep them apart. There’s just them. However, it’s like the notebook in the sense that after a lot of years they eventually found their way to each other and they tried to keep in contact over the years they spent apart. Also, there’s a death👀.
The first thing that pulled me to this movie was the lead actress, Anne Hathaway. A phenomenal actress who has slayed everything she’s starred in. I am never ever disappointed after watching an Anne Hathaway movie. The other thing was the vibe. It’s an old movie set in the late 80s and early 90s. I am deeply in love with old movies, clothes, buildings- you can honestly name it, vintage should be my middle name. So this movie was like a warm hug pressed close to my heart… until it wasn’t.
Call Me By Your Name
Okay, let’s start this off with there’s no death- yay! BUT there’s probably just as much intensity as The Notebook. He saw him, he was drawn and for the life of him, he couldn’t look away. This isn’t a movie for everyone. Not everyone will enjoy it. Not everyone will understand it.
First, it’s slow. Most people don’t really have the patience to sit through slow movies. It’s also not all in English. Not everyone is in love with culture and languages. There’s also a lot of subtext. Not everyone understands innuendo. Not everyone can read between the lines. Finally, it’s gay as hell. As the world knows, a select few(*many*) have some issues with that. But me? I fell completely in love with it. Every longing look, every brush of their hands, every word exchanged, every language introduced- with every second that went by, I fell more and more in love with this movie.
A Walk To Remember
This is based off another Nicholas Spark book of the same name; A Walk To Remember. It’s your typical good girl meets asshole bad boy and though he’s mean to her in the beginning, slowly, over time they start falling for each other. They try to fight it but eventually it’s no use. There’s of course, a twist. She has a secret she doesn’t want anyone to know and when he eventually finds out, it rips him apart, it rips both of them apart.
This movie-this story is an extremely sad one. It’s heavy on love and pain, like The Notebook and it’s also heavy on sacrifice for the one you love. Exactly like The Notebook. For a lot of reasons, it’s not for everyone. It’s super old and cliche. It could also be difficult to stomach but if you can, it’s a really amazing watch.