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I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Absolutely brilliant

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Not to be a spoilsport with the first mediocre review of this film, THE NOTEBOOK is either unsure of what it wants to achieve or weak in it's execution of it's goal. The too brief introduction of the twins, their parents and their world plops us into their grandmother's home with little sympathy or understanding of their plight. The town, it's denizens and occupiers, are described only through the twins' narration so we're not allowed to form understanding or opinions of our own on such. The brothers' comprehension and reaction to their circumstances was simply not justifiable or evident to this viewer. What appear to be plot points - grandmom's jewelry, the soldier's arsenal, mom's infidelity - ultimately do little to enhance what appears to be THE NOTEBOOK's point - our young heroes' sad adaptation to their environment. Finally, no doubt THE NOTEBOOK's ending is meant to naturally flow from the story preceding it. I saw no relevance whatsoever. Because a film is foreign, sparse, harsh and in B&W doesn't automatically assign it merit. In contrast, similar setting, motif, characters, etc., has recently been used to great effect in Pawel Pawlikowski's IDA, a Polish film. Indeed, this film would make more sense; i.e., it's confusion forgiven, if it were a true account of a set of twins' ordeal. As an afterthought, and without sarcasm intended, Piroska Molná as "grandmother" does a fine acting performance.

The Hungarian film directors are often consumed up in photography and do not care of the story. Thanks God, not here. Agota Kristof's Le Grand Cahier has such a strong storyline that it cannot be destroyed. However attempt to do so can be detected here.I hope that after a while all directors learn that a book itself is not a script, they can use movie to tell the story, even leaving out some key elements of the book.Some scenes cry that were shot on the same streets, same interiors.But this is it, that's why I gave only 8/10, as the film works. It takes you to a journey where you forget your soda and popcorn and step out to the real word afterward a bit changed. You know that it can happen. As in the summary, the circumstances can bring out the evil from everyone. Even 10 year old boys. We know this since the Lord of the Flies, but it is good to be remembered to it from time to time...

I left this film feeling a strong sense of dread. The filmmakers succeeded. This movie is essentially about a major war as seen through the eyes of twin 13 year old boys in all its terrible, psychologically impactive ways. The main characters are literally turned into sociopaths, but that transformation makes sense when considering the time and place in which the story occurs. It's not a contrived story. Now to the part that made me rate it a 7 instead of a 9. There are several areas in which I felt this movie could have excelled yet didn't. The concept was great, for example, and the tone was clear and consistent throughout (hence my feeling of dread at the end), but the actual plot had several holes that seemed unnecessary. It could have been tighter in concept. Along with that, the characters always seemed to be slightly distant, as if I were viewing them from the outside looking in. Again, not a major criticism (I gave the film a 7 after all), but certainly a reason why it's not rated higher. The color palette was also a concern as flat images took center stage in this production. I'm not saying that every film needs to have a 3D-like high contrast, ultra- saturated image, but it seemed like this film was sacrificing picture quality convenience in many scenes. I thought that many of the scenes could have been filmed in a more strong visual way that would have led to a better overall feeling and score on my part. In any case, a 7 is a high score for me and this score reflects the fact that I left the theater feeling a specific way, which way was clearly manipulated by the movie director/writer. That's always a positive in my book. extra points to creativity in tone and subject matter (I don't think that I've ever seen, in my life, a toe molestation scene involving such a great looking molester. That whole thing was incredibly surprising. Now you know why I gave the spoiler check on top). Overall, this movie was great in comparison, and would rate in the top five of all movies that I have seen at the Shanghai International Film Festival 2014 (out of around 20). Highly recommended.

Janos Szasz's The Notebook is a fable about the destructive effects of hardening oneself against suffering and loss. Two 13-year-old twins are left with their brutal grandmother to be saved from WW II. They determine to harden themselves against pain, suffering and emotions. They survive the grandmother, the war, separation from their parents, while feeling themselves inseparable. Lying together asleep they breathe in unison as if the twins were indeed one person. Having deliberately forgotten their mother's loving words and burned her letter they can refuse her attempt to retrieve them. They grow so remote from their father that upon his return they coolly send him to a fatal mine. Climactically their hardening against the outside forces leads to their hardening against themselves. That's why the boys who have been inseparable for so long now split up. One crosses the border, the other stays behind, because they have hardened themselves to accept a loss they couldn't conceive of before.None of the characters have names. They are the twins, the grandmother/witch, the officer and his friend, the maid, etc. The lack of names coheres with the twins' abandonment of their humanity and identity.The title refers to the journal that the father, as he goes off to war, gives the boys to record their every detail of life. The assignment becomes a central part of the studies which their mother exhorted them to pursue but also encourages their self-awareness. The pages we see reveal their growing awareness of the world's harshness, especially the flip-book cartoons of repeated violence. The violence in their clinical collection and killing of insects and animals grows into their violence against the pretty maid who bathed with them but then slandered their friend, the Jewish shoemaker. With the former sexual initiation followed by the murder of the Jews the boys first come to terms with adult experience. They are not improved by it. For more see www.yacowar.blogspot.com.