PG-13 | 2h 3m | Romance | June 25, 2004
“The Notebook.” Rotten Tomatoes critics: 53, audience: 85.
What? Are you kidding me? Few things drive me up a wall these days more than ridiculous Rotten Tomatoes critic/audience opinion-skews, when you can drive a Mack truck between them. Because somebody’s clearly out of touch and missing the point.
Is it the audience? When things hit “critical mass,” and it becomes a clear case of “where there’s smoke there’s fire,” it means a resonating chord has been struck with people, regardless of someone’s film-school knowledge of cinematography and the fashionable knee-jerk labeling of a heartfelt, old-fashioned romance as a “tear-jerker.” Something deep, archetypal, and true has been addressed. The people know what they like; and the critics tie themselves in knots with preconceived notions.
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