The Notebook: This weeks guest Lauren Rosi and Jill Collister get real passionate about the mother of all brokenhearted blockbusters: The MerFer Notebook. This 2004 romantic drama is based on the book of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The film stars Ryan Gosling (sigh) and Rachel McAdams as Noah and Allie a couple from the 1940s. Their story is read from a notebook (Oh I get it!) in the present day by an elderly man, James Garner, to a fellow nursing home resident played by Gena Rowlands.