Corny as it sounds...and is...here's a movie that unabashedly celebrates true love, plain and simple. And not just youthful, carefree love but a romance that burns brighter as the decades pass. Call it mature love, if that doesn't conjure images from On Golden Pond or Harold and Maude.

Adapted from a Nicholas Sparks novel, The Notebook is a magnificently effective tearjerker with the languorous pace of the Carolina tidewater town where most of the action takes place. On the eve of America's entry into World War II, a summer fling between Allie (Rachel McAdams), a rich Charleston girl, and Noah (Ryan Gosling), a working-class kid, is sabotaged by her mother -- Joan Allen looking more wickedly pinched and angular than ever. Can this summer romance be the real thing? You betcha! Can this mushy story move you? Yes Sirree!

Allie and Noah's heartsong is told in flashback. In a present day nursing home, a man (James Garner) reads about the young couple to an elegant, Alzheimer's-afflicted woman (Gena Rowlands).  He relates how Noah wrote to Allie every day for a year while fighting in the war. She never received the missives and became engaged to a soldier -- a suitable, rich, chivalrous Southerner (James Marsden). Meanwhile, a despondent Noah returned home and restored the stately old home where their passion was nearly consummated. Snippets concerning the older couple's situation interrupt the main narrative, and the audience learns the older man is trying to jog her memory. Their exact relationship is slowly revealed, and though it's clear where things are headed, uplifting twists are saved for the powerful conclusion.

Rarely is "true love" taken seriously, let alone extolled at the movies these days. And while the picture is warm -- suffused with nostalgia for the traditional values of the "Greatest Generation" -- there's no humor to speak of. It's a serious, unflinching romantic drama that isn't embarrassed about emoting, whether through shots of a sunset, Jimmy Durante's rendition of "I'll Be Seeing You", or the logical yet enflamed declarations of a young lover and the stubborn attentiveness of an aged one. It also strikes a broadly religious note about the miraculous power of love.

To call The Notebook maudlin or syrupy is like criticizing a successful comedy for being too funny - -it's supposed to make you cry. Of course there's a difference between conveying sentiment and indulging in sentimentality, between heartfelt and cloying. It's a matter of degree and presentation, and finally taste. The real question is: does it work? It did for me. And the main reason is the quartet of superlative lead performances.

Everything hinges on the connection made by the two pairs of actors. Rowlands, whose son Nick Cassavetes directs with poignant aplomb, gets the blank, confused facial expressions of senile dementia down cold. Garner's very American countenance and voice are ideal. As Allie, McAdams is a bright and peachy chameleon with changeable looks. The constant quality is her voluptuous, girl-next-door beauty befitting the period.

The best tonic against sentimentality is Ryan Gosling. You could never accuse him of being a ham; and his Noah is a supremely confident character. A powerful minimalist, Gosling doesn't have to do much to project his smoldering, inward-directed charisma. Thanks to his naturalistic performance, you never doubt Noah and Allie are destined for one another. This certainty undercuts the suspense. But it's worth it. Everything else in the universe rightfully shrivels in comparison to their love. Including The Notebook 's flaws. 

(Released by New Line Cinema and rated "PG-13" for some sexuality.)