Here’s a fact that’ll make you feel old: The Notebook was released in 2004 and that puts it worrying close to being able to legally drink.
For a decade and a half, the story of Noah and Allie’s relationship has caused many tears to be shed, unrealistic expectations of how romance should play out, and how Ryan Gosling’s portrayal of Noah set the bar when it comes to loving someone wholeheartedly.
But once you take off the rose-tinted glasses for a second and look at Noah with objective eyes, it’s quickly clear that he’s nothing but a manipulative fuccboi.
Let’s go back to when Noah first meets Allie at the county fair and asks her for a dance within 60 seconds of seeing her. Not only is that something incredibly weird to ask a complete stranger, he’s immediately giving off creeper vibes when he gets right up in Allie’s personal space, something that she mentions to her friend afterwards.
But things get cranked up to 11 when Noah then crashes Allie and her date’s Ferris wheel ride just to ask her out. When she repeatedly says no, he decides to hang off the Ferris wheel and basically implies that he’ll kill himself unless she goes out with him.
That’s not romantic, that’s just manipulative. Emotionally blackmailing a woman into a date is just twisted on so many levels, regardless of whether Noah looks like Ryan Gosling or how everyone laughs it all off as a joke afterwards.
In the real world, Allie would’ve needed some serious therapy for the emotional damage inflicted upon her by a stranger she just met. But since that wouldn’t make for a very romantic movie, Allie instead succumbs to Noah’s “charm” and the two have an unrealistically healthy relationship.
It’s perhaps for the best that The Notebook was released back in 2004 because if someone did what Noah did today, they would be locked up in a cell with the key thrown away instead of being put on a pedestal as a romantic heartthrob.
You should’ve stuck with Lon Hammond, Jr., Allie.