Nicholas Sparks' Dancing in the Street Worked Wonders

There is forbidden love, first love, rekindled love, complicated love, unconditional love, and then there is The Notebook. I've always thought love was overrated, a cliché constantly suspended between reality and ideality. There is no constant in love, except change and loss, perhaps even compromises. I don't fully understand the concept of love mainly because it reincarnates itself in so many different narratives and people. It's highly experiential and the people who do fall in love can never decipher what that feeling is like. So, how do you know whether you've fallen down an endless well of turmoil or fallen in love? Whether that intangible tingly feeling is the butterflies or your soul extricating from your body as you continue falling into a hole of tragedy and despair? Well, the answer is, you can't. I don't think love is black and white. 

Love is like an onion. The more you peel and the farther you go, the more you explore. There are layers of intimacy, trust and nostalgia that embody this onion and take it from a seventeen-year-old, inexperienced teenager, falling in love isn't about falling endlessly and faithfully in the hope that someday you'll know what being in love is like. It's about taking the leap of falling into the unknown. That's what I see in The Notebook. The story is about two people and is a narration of their journey. The plot is split into two time periods, the 1940s when the couple first met, and the late 1980s when the couple age together in a nursing home as grandparents. Noah and Allison (Allie) fall truly and deeply in love in the summer of 1946 where Allison, an overachiever, red-headed, blue-eyed, daddy's little girl, has mapped out her life beyond Sarah Lawrence. She is portrayed as a selfless, modest person who seems to decide the course of her future through validation. On the other hand, Noah is the son of a once-millworker and carries the legacy of this profession. They aren't as affluent but embrace their small-town life as it is. Noah is portrayed as a decisive, unswerving man who makes the first move and sets the mood for the rest of the narrative. Due to the war and class differences, Allison and Noah dreadingly part ways a week before summer ends as they unknowingly label their time together as a summer fling. Years pass by, Allison meets a new man, born in old money, blue-eyed again, parents' favourite and a great dancer, or so he brags. All in all, when proposed, Allison wishes it could have been Noah. Soon, when an advertisement of Noah's newly-built house gets out, Allison, an almost-wife faints in front of her entourage and elopes to Seabrooke to see her first love, perhaps her only love. They spend nights together, making love and reliving older days. When the time comes, she makes her choice and of course, it is Noah. It was always Noah. By now, you must be thinking oh well, isn't this always the case? girl meets boy, boy and girl lock eyes, boy and girl fall in love. The End. 

Well, I beg to differ. The story deepens when the narrator is disclosed as the older Noah whose efforts to retrieve Allison's memory results in less than five minutes of nostalgia till she accuses him of being a predator and worse, a stranger. Undeniably, this movie is about our choices subconsciously or consciously, and inevitably for our significant other. Moreover, this movie reiterates the concept of love as a thread that connects two individuals that live different lives in different worlds but find the time to create a new one for themselves. That's what Noah and Allison did. Noah built a house on the belief that it could attract Allison's eyes to it and perhaps, remember the promises they made to each other by the broken staircase and within the succumbing walls of this house. Allison chose Noah, she chose to dance with him in the middle of the street, and she chose to bear the tragic noise that came out of his mouth in the name of music. 

The movie ends with Noah and Allison passing away together, hand-in-hand, squished together on an old hospital bed, while Allison's memory struggles to stay put. Slowly, they both drift into an eternity's of undisturbed sleep. I know what you're thinking that's tragic. It is incredibly tragic but also unexpected and somehow aligns itself with a pinch of reality. I didn't see that coming and with most romantic movies, I always see it coming. Here's a thing: when Noah first laid his eyes on Allison, we all knew they would fall in love, continue dancing in the middle of the street, and watch over the sunset from their white porch. Here's another thing: love is a battlefield because people get hurt, they die from heartaches but it is also a symbol of victory for those who can win and conquer hearts. For Noah and Allison, it was a warzone, literally. But they rose victorious and normally, I'd barf but something hit me and I hope it's not my lonely heart aching for attachment and permanence. God, I hope not. Their compromises help make a beautiful photo book for Noah to pass his days by. 

I just think in a world of chick-flicks and teenage scream, we could use a movie whose plot is real even though it seems unlikely.  I don't think I believe in love. I think it's an infatuation and in some cases, it's an even longer infatuation, often buried to the ground. People fall in love, commit to each other, spend their lives making compromises and promises they fail miserably at, or religiously maintain. In most cases, their commitment requires legal representation. So, they get married. I am not against any of this. But after some time, the love dissolves, not into hatred, but care. They remain with each other because they care for each other; however, they tangled the aspect of love. But I have come to terms with my perception of love and I'm regretful that today, The Notebook contradicts my judgement. 

It's a book I'm now longing to read and it's a movie I won't critically analyse for loopholes or its lack of inclusivity of the different perspectives on love. The Notebook is a must-watch, not because it reassures you of love and optimism but because it is a narrative culmination of all kinds of love. Maybe for some, love is compartmentalised. But for Noah and Allison, their journey comprised of different stages of love and intimacy that I can only admire.