Why We Should All Stop Watching 'The Notebook'

There's something unnerving about The Notebook; it's one of those weird films that literally makes you cry every time, even if you're a tough cookie. Just search Google for “The Notebook cry” and you'll find countless stories with which to empathize from people who never usually cry at anything. It's probably the reason the film has risen to pretty much cult status among millennials – aside from, well, the hopelessly romantic storyline that progresses from a tale of Noah and Allie's (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) young passion, through adversity to the old-age protagonists eventually dying in each others arms. We've all pined a bit for Mr Gosling after watching the movie and wished we had a little more romance in our lives, but according to a relationship expert, it's high time we stopped watching it.

“Noah restores a house for Allie," said Gurpreet Singh, Relate counselor and psychotherapist, to Timeout . "He writes letter after letter waiting for her. They die holding hands. Talk about idealised love! If you believe in it you start to think: I shouldn't settle for less. But most average couples are nothing like that. We are humans, we are fallible. Love is imperfect because we are.” Nice one, thanks for killing our dreams Gurpreet.

Singh also rated some other classic films badly in the idealized-romance stakes, including Dirty Dancing, Notting Hill and The Lobster. Somewhat surprisingly, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith was among those that received a higher realism ranking. Don't know about you, but we don't think we'd be pulling this one out for a bit of Sunday evening tear-jerking.