Entertainment

Sorry, Ryan Gosling: This Version is Better

by Alicia Lutes

Sorry, Mr. Gosling and apologies to you, too, Ms. McAdams, but your sprawling love story The Notebook has been bested. By cats. Yes: cats. Where once was an old man, there is a cat. Where an elderly dementia patient sat quietly in contemplation? Another cat. And in the flashbacks to the lives in the downright fairy tale-esque romance that was their supposed life? Kittens. Sorry, Nicholas Sparks, but The Notebook featuring cats is better than the original.

I just so happen to be one of those few women that really, really hates The Notebook. Where some find a heartbreakingly beautiful story about love conquering all, I see emotional torture porn of the soapiest order. Not even my imaginary boyfriend Ryan Gosling can save it from itself, in my eyes. Weepy, woeful, and wrenching, The Notebook sits atop the list of "movies that drive me crazy in a bad way" that I can barely get through. When performed by cats, however, the pithy story structures are made hilariously anew — and all that plotline fluff is replaced with kitty fluff: far more conducive to good times than anything in the 123-minute long feature film. We know we're in the minority on this one, but, hey: it takes all kinds, right? Some people are going to prefer a dramatic kiss in the rain, while others are going to prefer that rain turning out to actually just be a human washing a window behind some cats.

OK, fine: the Gosling/McAdams kiss was pretty swoonworthy, we'll give you that. But only that!

Image: New Line Cinema