Overall, pacing unevenness keeps the film from soaking up its full depth, whose kick goes further diluted by subtlety issues and conventionalism, until you're left with a flawed final product, but one that still compels, using lovely cinematography and score work to compliment the taste within Nicholas Sparks' undeniably meaty story concept, which is brought to life well enough by Nick Cassevetes' direction and a strong cast for "The Notebook" to ultimately stand as a flawed, but quite good melodrama that rewards the patient.
With four kids and eleven grandchildren in the house, he needed to get out of the house now and then, and Noah couldn't blame him.