The Notebook (Le Grand Cahier) | Full Movie | Movies Anywhere

While some sequences are powerful and even shocking, the cumulative effect lacks emotional punch, due in part to the uneven performances and the familiarity of the material.

Are you a nihilist? Trouble finding a way to bring satisfaction to a Friday night in the void of meaningless suffering that is your universe? Well, do I have the movie for you.

The movie makes an obvious statement about the cruelties of war, but that does not diminish the ferocity of its story and how two pampered boys are transformed into soulless and callous youths.

There's something haunting going on here -- in the story, in the performances, in the overall atmosphere -- that makes it hard to look away from, and equally hard to forget.

The relentless calamity becomes a grind, offering few insights beyond ones that are obvious in the first half hour.