Ethics

The story in the film is told from a first person point of view. There is first person narration provided by the male protagonist, and the portions that dont feature voice-over narration are experienced from the first person point of view of the protagonist characters in both current times and in flashback memories.

The overall tone of the film is heartfelt and emotional. It is not always emotionally sad or dramatic, but the characters feel the emotions they are experiencing deeply. When they are happy in love, they are very happy. When they are torn apart, they feel the separation and sadness equally deeply.
The films protagonists are Noah Calhoun and Allie Hamilton. Noah Calhoun is a poor boy from the country working in a mine and trying to save enough money to purchase an old plantation home where he can live for the rest of his life. He is educated, but by his father, and is happy living a simple life. Allie Hamilton is a wealthy girl from a structured life with a college-bound future that has been planned for her by her strict parents. She wants to please them.

The antagonist in the movie could be perceived to be Allies mother, since she is the most tangible opposing force that keeps the two lovers apart. She hides the letters that Noah writes Allie so that Allie will think hes forgotten about her. Time and social class could also be seen as antagonistic, since class is the main reason they arent allowed to be together and so much time passes when they are separated that it is almost impossible for them to reunite once they see each other again, even though they still love each other very much.

There are two main settings in the film. The modern-day portion is told in a drab nursing home. The majority of the film, in a flashback, is set in June of 1940 in a sea side town named Seabrook.
Noah and Allie meet in the summer of 1940 and fall in love despite cultural and class differences. They break up after Allie is forced to leave him by her parents. Noah writes Allie letters that her mother hides so that Allie will forget about Noah and not jeopardize her future. Allie goes off to college while Noah joins the military and fights in the war in Europe. Years pass and Allie falls in love with Lon Hammond, whom she agrees to marry. She goes back to Seabrook to see if Noah is still there and they are reunited, falling back in love. Forced to choose between Noah and her fiance, she chooses Noah and finally does what she wants to do and follows her heart.

There is clearly a man versus man conflict in the clash of social classes between Noah and Allies family. Allies mother calls Noah trash.

The climax of the film occurs when Allie has to choose between Lon and Noah. Lon finds out that she has returned to Seabrook to find Noah and both men make her decide which of them she wants to be with. Noah tells her she will have more financial security with Lon, but more lasting happiness and love with him. She finally chooses for herself and decides to stay with Noah.

The film is resolved when Allie chooses Noah and it is revealed that they are the elderly couple in the nursing home. Allie, in the present day, comes out of her dementia long enough to recognize Noah and they die in each others arms. The ending did leave the conflict between Allies family and Noah unresolved. Its unclear whether they accepted her decision or ostracized her for choosing Noah.

There is an obvious representation of the universal theme of love in the relationship between Allie and Noah. There is also a theme of betrayal represented in the actions of Allies mother when she steals Noahs letters.

My overall impression of the film was that it was a deeply emotional love story about two people that find each other after years of being kept apart. I enjoyed the story as a whole, but I felt that there were elements that were skipped over for the sake of focusing the majority of the films attention on the relationship between Noah and Allie. Noah loses his best friend Fin in the war, and no time is devoted to how this affects him. The effect that Allies decision has on her relationship with her parents is also completely omitted. The strength of Allie and Noahs love could have been illustrated by showing how it endured these events.