If you are female and have a pulse, chances are you have seen the 2004 film, "The Notebook", possibly multiple times. This romantic tear-jerker is arguable the best chick flick of the 2000's. The Notebook was originally a popular novel by Nicholas Sparks, making the film version a bold attempt to remake a modern classic. "The Notebook" was Sparks' first novel which he then followed up with several other books that turned into movies. These include A Walk to Remember, Nights in Rodanthe, and Dear John.

Based on the popularity of The Notebook film, it seems that this particular film adaptation was successful.

The novel/movie is a story about a young couple named Allie and Noah that fall in love one summer before WWII and end up being separated by various circumstances, only to find each other again years later. A parallel storyline features an elderly gentleman visiting a woman in a nursing home with Alzheimer's who is reading her this story of the young couple. It is later revealed that the older man and woman are in fact Noah and Allie. In the movie, it is revealed that Allie wrote the story of their love before the disease advanced, with the instructions, "read this to me and I'll come back to you." (Try to restrain the tears!) And she does indeed come back to him, if only for a short time. The movie ends with the old couple in each others arms and passing away. It's the perfect end to the perfect romance.

As with all film adaptations there are differences between the book and the movie. Some might say these differences are major. Although Nicholas Sparks was pleased with how the movie turned out, according to an interview with About. When asked if he thought it would be hard for his book to be made into a movie, the author replies, "my books tend to be easily adapted because there are not a lot of characters, and they tend to be relatively short so you can pretty much capture everything. The adaptations are closer for my novels than they are for a lot of authors. You take a Tom Clancy novel: its 1500 pages and 15 subplots. They have to get that down to two hours."

Here are some of the differences that may or may not be considered major:

• in the book, Noah and Allie met at the carnival and spent time at the carnival, while in the movie he jumps on the ferris wheel to ask her out

• in the book when Allie first leaves Noah they left on good terms, but in the movie they get in a fight which they both regret

• in the book Noah wrote Allie one letter per month for a year, while in the movie it was one letter per week

• in the book, the notebook with the couple's love story was written by Noah, not Allie

• the book features letters written to Allie during their time apart and marriage, but the movie is not able to show exactly what the letters say

• the ending of the book has them lying in bed with Allie unbuttoning his shirt, while the movie ends with them dying peacefully in their sleep together

Overall, the movie version of The Notebook focuses more on the younger characters of Noah and Allie. Many critics and viewers have felt that the couple's love was actually more developed and heart felt in the movie, than in the book. This is one of the reasons why you can bet, if The Notebook is ever playing on TV, most females with a pulse will have to stop, and watch, and cry again.