Before he was Ken, he was Noah
A writer returns to where Ryan Gosling’s star really started to rise, in ‘The Notebook’
I have an embarrassing confession: I have never seen “The Notebook.”
In the two decades since the beloved romance movie’s 2004 release, I have watched Ryan Gosling play many eclectic roles, including a robotic special agent (“Blade Runner 2049”), a slick womanizer (“Crazy, Stupid, Love”), a drug-addicted history teacher (“Half Nelson”) and a socially awkward man who falls for a sex doll (“Lars and the Real Girl”). A lot of his characters shoot guns and crash cars. And, of course, there’s Barbie’s number two, Ken, who’s great at doing stuff.
But somehow, I skipped right by Gosling in his most famous preKen role as mill worker Noah, who returns to his small town after the Second World War and reconnects with his soul mate, Allie (Gosling’s then girlfriend, Rachel McAdams), as she is about to marry another man. And as the musical version of “The Notebook” (adapted from the film, which was adapted from Nicholas Sparks’ 1996 novel) lands on Broadway, it’s finally time for me to catch up.
Forget that Taylor Swift course. I’m getting my PhD in Gosling.
My “Notebook” gap wasn’t resistance to the film, its stars or the romance genre. “When Harry Met Sally” is my favourite movie. I can tell you, beat by beat, what will happen next in any given Hallmark film. I’ve even watched a parody video, “The Notebook 2,” in which another famous Canadian Ryan — this time, Reynolds — makes out with Conan O’Brien in a downpour.
But to understand the appeal of Gosling, one must leave no major role unseen and so I set out to watch a film that most people wept at 20 years ago.
In an early scene, when the two characters first meet at a fair, Noah climbs like a monkey up a Ferris wheel to demand that Allie go on a date with him, hanging precariously in the air by one arm until she agrees. It’s blackmail disguised as a grand romantic gesture, but Gosling makes it work. It’s cliché but, as Tyra Banks would say, he knows how to smize.
There’s a natural mischievousness that could come across as too cocky, but Gosling rides that fine line with sincerity.
Part of Gosling’s appeal is that he is a blank slate. That chameleonic quality worked for Ken. In Barbie’s world, the male doll is required to play a lot of roles. He’s handsome enough to play a leading man but not out of reach — like the bestpreserved guy at your high school reunion.
You never get the sense that Gosling is capital-A acting, like Bradley Cooper. He’s not a wise-cracker like Reynolds. He’s not a Clooney, a Pitt or a Cruise, where you’re always aware that you’re watching those actors. Even with my beloved “John Wick” series, I never fully shake that it is Keanu Reeves in hand-tohand combat or tumbling down staircases.
My smart pal Adrian made an astute observation, paralleling Gosling’s wide-ranging career with yet another Ryan’s: late actor Ryan O’Neal. In 1970, O’Neal brought the swoons in “Love Story,” in which he plays a rich college kid who falls for a working-class woman (Ali MacGraw). Sound familiar? O’Neal also lent his talents to comedies, dramas and action flicks, including as a getaway driver in Walter Hill’s 1978 film “The Driver.” In 2011, Gosling played a stunt professional turned getaway driver in “Drive.”
Mind you, O’Neal was a notoriously troubled man with a drug addiction and estranged familial relationships. Gosling, on the other hand, appears as clean as Keanu. Where O’Neal’s tumultuous relationship with Farrah Fawcett made the tabloids, Gosling’s marriage to fellow actor Eva Mendes remains a private affair.
The precious moments of self-effacing Gosling witnessed off-screen are restricted to events like award ceremonies and press junkets. When Gosling was caught on camera at the Academy Awards excited to see the border collie Messi from “Anatomy of a Fall” clapping with fake paws, his childlike delight reminded me of the dorky videos of him dancing as a kid star in “The Mickey Mouse Club,” which only makes him more endearing.
And then there was his showstopping performance that night of “I’m Just Ken.” According to Variety, Gosling was invested in every detail of the spectacle, including its thematic homage to “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” Choreographer Mandy Moore said Gosling wanted to share the spotlight with his female “Barbie” crew, Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie and America Ferrera, as well as “La La Land” co-star and friend Emma Stone. Moore also confirmed Gosling asked for consent before kissing a camera operator’s hand.
Given Hollywood’s ongoing #MeToo crisis, gestures like these are now more keenly observed. Ken’s toe dip into the men’s rights movement in “Barbie” wouldn’t be funny if Gosling was believed to be a misogynistic creep or had dated a string of models half his age. We’re all in on the joke.
This leads me back to “The Notebook,” which is essentially a Gosling sampler pack. You get charming repartee and natural chemistry between Gosling and McAdams, as well as a few moments of song and dance. There’s confident Gosling but also raw, wounded Gosling, recognizable with his messed up hair and beard.
I couldn’t gauge my emotional investment in the story until the end, but now I understand why the Broadway show is selling boxes of branded tissues. While Noah famously tells Allie that their love is going to be really hard and that they’re going to have to work at it every day, the opposite is true with Gosling’s brand of acting. He always makes it look really easy.