Before we start, let me say this: I love rom-coms, and not just the good ones - I'll watch any old rubbish.
I've seen What To Expect When You're Expecting upwards of 24 times and am possibly the only person on the planet who can they loved Chris O'Donnell in The Bachelor.
Repetition in the rom-com is expected - welcomed, even - but as I watched the trailer for Endless Love something snagged a bit. "Isn't this EXACTLY like The Notebook?" I pondered, as the guy from Magic Mike whisked Prince Harry's girlfriend's sister (Gabriella Wilde) off her feet.
And it is! It's 100% our favourite Ryan Gosling film (whatever, Only God Forgives) with a slightly more dreamy filter and a modern day setting. Here's what confirms it:
- Gabriella Wilde is a beautiful rich girl with everything except that which you cannot buy: life experience. Meanwhile, your man who plays The Kid in Magic Mike is from the wrong side of the tracks but hot and clever in a school-of-hard-knocks way. Question for Hollywood: why is the girl never from the bad neighbourhood and bagging herself a posh bloke, except when she's Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman? We'd like a non-prostitute version please, thanks.
- Rich girl's scary dad asks whats-his-face what he wants to be when he grows up and whats-his-face is all like, "oh, I don't need much." EXCUSE ME, that is exactly what happened between Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams' scary dad in The Notebook *incredulous face*!
- Then there's a scary-dad-unsuitable-guy confrontation ("you're not good enough for her, yadda yadda - clear off and be rubbish somewhere else")!
- Point of difference alert! Your man has A Past. The dad finds out and there's lots of threats and footage of him looking mean in a plaid shirt.
- But the couple stay together anyway (in your face, dad)! Cue lots of hair-in-the-wind shots, sexy time and foreboding music. This is not going to end well. Or it might. Oh, who knows, let's just watch the hair shots again.
To conclude, if you like The Notebook, you'll probably like this. But, if you really just like Ryan Gosling you should probably just stay in and Google his face.
Endless Love is out on February 14th.