NN #4 - The Notebook

The Notebook - movie 

The Notebook is a movie about a present day elderly couple, in which the wife, Allie, lives in a nursing home with dementia. Noah, her husband, reads her stories written from her personal journal in hopes to get her memory back. The movie is mainly focused on their previous stories that are written in the journal. But in the end the movie focuses on the fact that Allie suffers from dementia and cannot recall who her husband is, how they met, or what they have been through. At the end of the movie, Allie regains her memory for a brief moment and reconciles with her husband. She quickly forgets and panics sending the medical personnel in to sedate her. Because of the panic attack that Allie experienced, it gives Noah a heart attack landing him in the hospital as well. In the middle of the night Noah sneaks into Allie's room and crawls into bed with her. Allie regains her memory once again long enough to tell Noah that she may forget him again at any moment. They both fall asleep in the same hospital bed and pass away together through the night. (What a tear jerker!!) The reason I chose to write over this movie was because a) it is one of my favorite movies (I'm a sucker for sappy love stories) and b) now that I have learned about dementia it is easier to understand the background and reason for the story. From watching it the first 100 times I thought that there were some semi-unrealistic assumptions around dementia portrayed in the movie. For example, Allie regains her memory twice within one day. It is very rare for this to occur especially with people in late stage dementia. It is more likely for them to remember childhood memories and be stuck in that time rather than mid-life memories. And now knowing more about dementia, I realized that there are also some realistic symptoms of dementia shown in the movie. For example, Noah mentions his and Allie's name over and over again, and Allie seems to not know who Noah is or that he is her husband and doesn't even realize that her own name is Allie. Another example would be when she loses her memory as fast as she regained it and finds herself in Noah's arm while he's calling her sweetheart. She becomes very confused, angry, and defensive. It is very common for people with dementia to show aggressiveness towards the ones they love without even knowing it. Because this is such popular movie and is known for its love story I think it is important for people, especially us in the health profession, to pay attention to the underlying plot and what common people assume about a neurological disorder. Next time you watch this movie, or if you haven't ever I suggest that you take the time to, pay attention to the assumptions and realistic features of a movie. Especially one that is centered on a disease or disorder.