The Notebook (2013) User Reviews

An European answer to P. Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment

[matyas-faluvegi · 8/10 · 29 June 2014]

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...

Good

[manitobaman81 · 7/10 · 28 August 2014]

This is a story about a place most people might not be able to conceive. It gives a picture of a backwards society that diminishes reality, where culminating incidents brought by suffered individuals show the truth. Twin siblings enduring the harshness of WWII in a village on the Hungarian border hedge their survival on studying and learning from the evil surrounding them. The characters in this film have a lot of depth and the realism with which they are portrayed by the actors is shocking at times. There is a real duality to all the characters. Unfairly dismissed by some as confusing, I have made the decision to award this film a rating of 7/10.

Terrifying excellence

[rmanory · 8/10 · 16 March 2017]

Because the movie is about children experiences in WW2, I compare it to French movies with a similar plot and I can tell without doubt that this is perhaps the most terrifying of all. I think that the rough unexpected ending is not justified by the events preceding it. The boys do train themselves to withstand hardship--this is a very interesting point in the movie--but there is no justification to the way they treat their father. They cannot blame him for their hardship, except perhaps the fact that he returns from the war as a broken person, hardly compared to the attentive and loving father he was before he was recruited. I think the movie is outstanding in many aspects. There is no good person and bad person in their life during the war, but that's no reason for their last action. Their separation is also hard to understand. All in all however, it is a masterpiece and deserves to be widely seen.

Twins with Natural Evil

[kely-campos1789 · 7/10 · 31 August 2015]

Can a dysfunctional mind survive to a war? maybe for this kind of thought human does a better adaptation to a disgraceful system. The Twins here push it out his coldness showing a "natural" behavior through the movie, this is a basic instinct? war shape you to get insane. His grandmother increased that behavior, without bound and walking in an edge of life. The twins might make crazy things just for his interpretation of justice, meanwhile his book is filled with language in an innocent voice.

WWII shattered the Europeans feelings. When Humans try to reach a goal many time doesn't look sides.

The Notebook is a Hungarian film, full of criticism and allegorical situations. No neglecting to forget their effort to not take part, just a brushwork of history. Centered in twins, you can understand the miserable life in those days.

Nothing really new, but fine if you like character studies during wartime

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 23 November 2013]

The Notebook or "A nagy füzet" was given by their father to two young boys to write down everything they do or feel during the later years of World War II. The twins are given to their grandmother as the father has to go to war. Initially, they get beaten and verbally abused by the grandmother day in and day out, and also by many others of the townsfolk. That changes when they start hardening themselves in the rough times and stand up to the offenders. They even start building a real bond with the grandmother, although I was a bit surprised that it finally proved so strong that they preferred to stay there and not leave with their mother. At least the verbal abuse was still very common. It just felt like they didn't really mind anymore. While the child actors were fine, I thought Piroska Molnár playing the grandmother was the real highlight of the film acting-wise. I quite like Ulrich Matthes too and even if he was only in the early and final parts of the film, he did a very fine job. Especially watching him at the tense scenario near the end (clearly in the role of the victim and the boys being not really his sons anymore, but more flight "helpers" to him in crossing the border) of the film was edge-of-the-seat material.

One thing I thought was done very well was how the boys were really portrayed as one soul in two bodies and really nothing except raw physical violence could separate them from each other. One factor that added a lot to this closeness was how we never were told their names, which would have characterized them as two individuals. I have to admit this may be possibly the film from 2013 (and I've seen really a lot) that was bar any humor remotely. I almost had to laugh at the kids beating each other to harden up or when they were rolling the injured grandmother through the snow. There was obviously nothing funny about that, but it was some kind of unintentional situational comedy or maybe it was just me wanting some kind of temporary relief from this very bleak piece of filmmaking. One thing I wasn't too fond of were the characters of Noethen and Tambrea and their strange homosexual(?) relationship. They probably had to include it as it was in the book, but I have to say I wouldn't have missed anything if they had done without it.

Apart from that, we see the twins meet several characters, including two weirdly fascinating females who both face rather sad fates in the end, and their interactions are maybe the most interesting thing about this film. All in all, I'd recommend it. It's set during World War II, but I never really felt it was that war-related, or only as the setting. It's more about the fate of the boys and how they are dealing with the invisible threat that changed them completely.

"Painted Bird" Light

[samkan · 6/10 · 30 August 2014]

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 souls of two young boys twisted by the horrors of war

[jkbonner1 · 9/10 · 20 November 2013]

The Notebook begins as World War II is winding down. As an ally of Nazi Germany and part of the Axis Powers Hungary is on the losing end. The movie focuses on two young twin boys (András and László Gyémánt), whose names we never learn. They are 12 when the movie begins in the summer of 1944 and 13 when the movie ends in the summer of 1945.

To ensure their safety their parents (Gyöngyvér Bognár and Ulrich Matthes) place them in the care of the woman's mother, who lives in the countryside running a small farm. The problem is the grandmother (Piroska Molnár) has not seen her daughter in 20 years and clearly has a very low opinion of her. At the end of the movie she is surprised her daughter (after dying in a shell explosion) even had a husband. She is a mean old woman who's rumored to have poisoned her husband and the movie supports this conjecture. The villagers call her "the Witch." At the beginning of the movie the boys hate her because she keeps calling them bastards and is very mean to them. It's clear her grudge against her daughter is carried over to her grandsons to whom she shows no love nor warmth.

The boys transform from normal children into two human beings who have hardened themselves both physically and psychologically to deal with the rapidly deteriorating situation in Hungary. They nonchalantly watch both their mother and baby sister get blown to bits (largely their fault) and they cunningly watch their father die crossing a minefield (entirely their fault). No remorse is shown. At the end of the movie they go their separate ways, from being inseparable twins to purposely separating themselves.

To say the boys morph into monsters is not quite accurate. By the end they bear a grudging respect for their grandmother and assist her in dying after she's had a second stroke. They avenge an old Jewish man who's shown kindness to them by blowing the face off a pretty maid who turned him in to the authorities. So it's difficult to say that they've gone all the way from innocent boys to out-and-out psychopaths.

The movie makes it clear the boys' transformation stems from the barbarous and irrational ordeal they are forced to endure from other people and from the War itself. They have had to survive the fall of Hungary. The German Army has pulled out as represented by the Waffen SS German Officer who departs abruptly and who's shown a homosexual interest in them. The Hungarian Army has fallen into tatters as represented by the Hungarian soldier the boys stumble upon frozen and starved to death. And the Soviet Army is rolling into Hungary raping any girl or woman they can get their hands on, like Hairlip (Orsolya Tóth). About the Soviets there's a caption that says: Welcome the liberators. They've come to take all you own. When a priest is surprised that the twins know their Ten Commandments, one of the boys comments: The Fifth Commandment says Thou Shalt Not Kill. But everyone kills.

The Notebook could have used a brief introductory prologue to familiarize the viewer in more depth with the political context. Example: By 1944 the Second World War was rapidly being lost by the Axis Powers and Hungary, as an ally of the Axis Powers represented chiefly by Nazi Germany, was on the losing side. Several times in 1944 the Hungarian dictator, Admiral Horthy, sought to negotiate a separate peace with the Allies to pull Hungary out of the war but was unsuccessful. Under the direct orders of Adolf Hitler, in the autumn of 1944 the German Army (Wehrmacht) and the Waffen SS took over full control of the conduct of the war in Hungary but by the winter of 1945 Budapest, the capital of Hungary, surrendered to the rapidly advancing Soviet forces and the government of Hungary collapsed in total defeat.

The Notebook is also a truly gripping and powerful movie, but definitely not for those who prefer to avoid the realities of life and who like nice, cheery, feel-good stories. Also not for those who like blow-'em-ups/shoot-'em-ups. Many of the scenes are very brutal and very intense. This movie will make you ponder in depth the inhumanity and abject cruelty some humans do to other humans. And it's still going on out there in spades in many parts of the world. The twin boys in The Notebook were not adults. The horrors of war twisted their minds forever. I hope this movie will make us think more deeply about the effect war can have on people―physically, psychologically, and emotionally―and how war can be stopped.

The acting was well done and convincing and the cinematography contributed to the feel of Hungary at that time. This movie deserves to be watched.

I'll end my review by saying what I said as a wrap-up in 12 Years A Slave. It's not for everyone.

9/10

PS: I saw this movie at the Hungarian Film Festival held at the Laemmle NoHo 7 on Lankershim Blvd in North Hollywood, California USA.

Excellent war movie

[s_mitra04-1 · 7/10 · 22 June 2014]

The horror of war through the eyes of two boys. War has it's effect on every age group of people.War stories have been told several times, though this is quite different it's own way. It leaves you thinking, how devastating the war can be, and it leaves a mark on everyone through the ages to come. About this movie, the direction is superb, the acting especially the two boys are wonderful. Even the music is worth mentioning, is superb. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. The film has been selected as the Hungarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards.

An Intimate, Brutal Portrayal of Childhood During War

[eo-79513 · 9/10 · 3 April 2015]

In one of the most remarkable scenes of 'The Notebook', twin 12 year old brothers methodically, coldly trade punches. Each swings at the other, and then stands still, face expressionless, as he receives a slew of punches back. Gradually the punches are harder, and eventually they start using belts to ratchet up then pain threshold. They are children but this is no game: they are toughening up, physically and psychologically, to survive the war. They have realized that cuddling together and wishing the war away will not save them, and they better be prepared for hunger, pain, betrayal and daily humiliations. And survive they do, although they decide that in order to do so they must blackmail priests, steal from corpses, bully their grandmother and plant explosives in someone's kitchen.

The director competently handles deep staging and the use of long lens, very apt for the emotional distance the story takes with regards to the acts it depicts. The film works in large part because of the performance of László Gyémánt and András Gyémánt, real life twins, who give a stupendously restrained, controlled performances, often consisting solely of intense stares and vengeful glances. Color is mostly bleached out, music is sparse and some of the best moments consist of static, unnervingly long shots.

The film is set in a small village straddling the Austro-Hungarian border during world war two. But it is not particularly interested in providing context of the war, or of Hungary's terrible plight in it, or in Nazism or in any other details of the historical setting. So don't expect to learn much about world war 2 in this film as it is merely the backdrop to a story that is really about survival and what happens to children's moral compass during war.

Hungarian films are their own sub-genre. Perhaps no other country has produced such consistently bleak films, soaked in pessimism and mostly focused on moral corruption and confusion. This small gem of a film is yet another example of this cinematic tradition. This is not quite at the level of masterpieces such as 'Come and See'or 'Time of the Drunken Horses', my two favorite films about childhood during wartime, but absolutely deserves to be seen, or, to be more precise, endured.

How to become a sociopath in 10 days.....or 1 war.

[eldernubri · 7/10 · 21 June 2014]

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.

Only real war movie I've ever seen

[dodgy-850-570436 · 10/10 · 21 November 2013]

jkbonner1 has written an excellent and in-depth review of the movie, all I would like to add is that this is the first and only movie that I have ever seen that I think succeeds in realistically portraying the devastating human aspects of WWII on a personal level without resorting to sentimentalism or nostalgia. Although gruesome with plenty of disturbing scenes, it is not grotesque. For me the only movie that comes close would be Apocalypse Now - which is, of course, a very different movie but I think similar in that both give a glimpse of the inhumanity and insanity of war. I also really admired about the movie that every key character undergoes a complete transformation - it presents us with an initial situation where it seems obvious who is in the right and who is "evil", and succeeds in turning everything upside down by the end of the movie, including our own definitions of right and wrong and good and evil. The movie does of course have some inconsistencies, some scenes appear highly unlikely and the boys seem to meet with every misfortune imaginable. But I think such criticism is beside the point. Through the eyes of the boys we are shown events that did happen over and over again to thousands of people. And in the end it is up to us to consider what is "good", whether we have a right to judge any of the characters in the movie, and given such circumstances how much of our own humanity and values could any of use have maintained? BTW I signed up to IMDb just to be able to share these thoughts with you about this movie :-) and I "look forward to" one day reading the book the movie is based upon (Agota Kristof: Le grand cahier).

cold-hearted fable

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 3 January 2016]

It's 1944. Twin boys live comfortable city lives. Their parents are worried about the impending Nazi defeat and upheaval. Their mother brings them to live with their bitter grandmother. They don't even know her who has been living alone in the Hungarian rural home estranged from her daughter. She's angry and beats on the boys. Local girl Harelip steals from them but she turns the table on the boys and they're the ones getting beaten. Nazis have a camp nearby. After constant beatings, the boys decide to toughen up and learn from the evil surrounding them.

It's a disturbing violent world being portrayed. The twins are not necessarily good actors. They don't get much sympathy. The grandmother is fascinating in her ugliness. It's a cold-hearted fable without anybody to root for.

Pointless evil with a TERRIBLE editing

[alcosta-197-774442 · 3/10 · 15 August 2020]

This is one of those movies where you expect to have some central message, and at the end you get none

It is just pointless evil where good is bad, bad is good, and at the end you just dont care anymore

All, wrapped up with the most terrible editing I've ever seen, when one scene leads to another too fast, too messy, too crappy

Two tough kids and a tougher grandmother survive the war

[Barev2013 · 10/10 · 22 April 2015]

A NAGY FŰZET = The Notebook, Hungarian, 2013. Viewed at New Hungarian film week, Budapest November, 2014 Hungarian director János SZASZ (56) does not make many films, but when he does, it's always one he has thinking about for years, has been working on for three or four years, and is worked out to the minutest last detail. In between films he is a very busy theater director which is one reason why he is so adept at handling actors. His most recent film, "The Big Notebook", came out in 2013 and was one of the prestige Films of the year, shown at numerous festivals. I was only able to catch up with it at the New Budapest Film. Week and was not disappointed. Immediate reaction:

The Third film of the day, the Nightcap that ended around Ten thirty, was Janos Szasz' arty WW II period Epic, "The Notebook" (A nagy füzet), the only really big Hungarian film of 2013, that I have been hoping to catch up with all year. Classically filmed as are all of János's films, this is a harrowing tale of two teenage twin boys who are left by their mother with an extremely stout, blunt, and tough-as-nails grandmother out in the country so they can survive the war. Their father who is called off to war at the very beginning leaves them with a Large Notebook -- whence the title -- instructing them to record all of their experiences while he is gone. This they do dutifully even when they are evacuated to granma's country house. However, grandma has not seen her daughter, their mother, for twenty years, is very resentful that she left and made no effort to contact her ever since. Only grudgingly does she allow her estranged daughter to dump these kids, her biological grandchildren, on her. The rest of the story -- the bulk of the film, deals with how these resourceful kids cope with a very bad situation. very bad --- part of it under German military occupation, and how grandma eventually accepts them and they her -- but only after years of extremely brutal mutual antagonism and other harrowing experience

Eventually heavy set grandma dies of a stroke, or rather is assisted in her death by the boys who's earlier hate has finally turned into respect for this incredibly feisty old woman. Left me drained -- the kind of drain You feel after taking an emotional roller coaster ride through a fully satisfying picture. more details later, but thus is one of the new recent Hungarian biggies. Hefty 69 year old actress Piroska Molnár, who is memorable from her very first scene in the picture playing the estranged acid-tongued country grandmother, is currently one of the busiest "Leading ladies" in magyar pictures. She was equally memorable in the highly controversial Hungarian Film Szemle winner TAXIDERMIA in 2006, and Will also be seen here later this week in the lead role of the surrealistic chiller FREE FALL.

A brilliant movie about the cruelties of life

[azadeh-tafreshiha · 10/10 · 18 January 2014]

The film is not only beautiful to watch but also very deep. It shows the cruelties of the war through the life of two twin brothers that are left to the care of a non forgiving grandmother during the war. They are so innocent and so good but that has to change because their new place is very cruel. People are cruel, environment is cruel and everything is even harsher because of the World War II. So they decide to overcome their weaknesses by fronting their fears. They are in the end successful in that. They become as cruel as the place they are left in and they refuse to leave their once detested grandmother to live with their loving mother. They even use their father's life to get to their own end. Overall a very moving, very real depiction of war time. The audience does not have to endure graphic violence scenes, but the violence is conveyed through the stern faces and determined behaviour of the two very young boys who are identical to look at, which makes it all the more memorable.

Two twin boys harden themselves against pain, emotion and loss

[maurice_yacowar · 9/10 · 8 January 2014]

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.

A well told story, a well made film

[bandw · 10/10 · 25 July 2017]

(Spoilers) After a couple of brief flashbacks, the story begins in Hungary in August, 1944. To wait out the war in a safer environment, twelve-year-old twin brothers have been sent from a comfortable urban apartment to their grandmother's farm on the Austrian border. Harsh would be a kind description of granny--on their first night the boys are left outside in the cold until they work around the farm to earn any privileges, like being inside.

This is not a war movie as such, but rather about the effects war has on people and the parlous moral climate that prevails. While there are some brief war-related scenes, like Jews being marched out of town and there being a nearby concentration camp, the emphasis is on what the boys are experiencing and how they react. During the course of the film, seeing what is going on around them, the boys implement a survivalist strategy by trying to toughen themselves physically, psychologically, and emotionally. Blackmail, theft, lying, and violent revenge are in their repertoire. War has turned decent, happy boys into amoral survivalists--their gradual transformation is skillfully presented.

One cavil: the boys' physical appearance does not deteriorate as much as it would have in the time frame before they meet the priest's helper who helps care for them--they are never what one would call scruffy. If the movie could have provided smells it would have been distinctly more unpleasant than it is.

Attention is paid to the complexity of human behavior. Stereotypes are avoided. The story goes in unexpected directions. Not all affirmative feeling is drained from the boys, they respond warmly to a Jewish cobbler who gives them a pair of shoes, and they befriend a neighbor girl, whom they call Harelip, who teaches them about theft. The boys participate in one instance of assisted suicide, out of compassion, and another that is problematic. By the end we see that the boys are capable of pretty much anything. The betrayal of the father in the final act is shocking. Or, given the rotten emotional and physical shape the father is in, as well as his status as an ex-soldier, was their act one of mercy?

One of the most sympathetic characters is a German SS officer who takes to the boys, there being more than a hint of a sexual undercurrent in his liking of them. This officer runs counter to any preconceived image. He wears a neck brace that prevents him from turning his head. The officer's relationship with the boys is presented in a positive light--in fact he saves the boys from being beaten in an attack that could have resulted in their death. Is pedophilia always bad? Is what the officer did to stop the attack condemnable? An example of how the movie poses moral dilemmas.

I confess that my knowledge of Hungarian history during the was is a little weak. I understood that Hungary fought on the side of the axis powers, so I was confused by how the Nazis were clearly an occupying force. A brief reading of Wikipedia on the matter is clarifying. One of the most poignant scenes has Harelip waving to the Russian "liberators" as they approach the village; they pick her up on their tank. This scene is brilliantly filmed as the tanks are initially seen in the distance and gradually approach the happy girl in real time. Later we see what the Russians did to Harelip.

Independent of its absorbing story I was struck by what an accomplished piece of film making this is. I found the two boys (twins in real life) to be believable. Piroska Molnár as the grandmother, is perfectly cast. High production values prevail. I found the spare, edgy score to be highly effective.

This movie had me questioning the morality of almost all actions. Viewed from one angle I could understand the motivations and even sympathize with what transpired. On the other hand, in a non-war setting the behaviors would be considered reprehensible. War complicates moral judgments. The use of atomic weapons at the end of WWII is still being debated over seventy years later.

The twins are presented as being inseparable from birth, so I was puzzled by their decision to part ways at the end of the movie. They could see what was happening around them, for example having suffered a physical beating that no amount of their training could have prepared them for. Their father wanted out, so why didn't both boys decide to leave the country? I would like to see two sequels to this movie, movies that follow each of the two boys in the years after the war.