10 Big Movie Twists That Were So Obvious It Actually Hurt

6. The Old Lady Is Rachel McAdams - The Notebook

The Twist: The Ryan Gosling-Rachel McAdams romance of the 1940s is framed by a modern day story at a nursing home, as elderly Duke (James Garner) reads a romantic story to an elderly patient (Gena Rowlands).

After the major beats of the 1940s' love story play out (where Gosling and McAdams' characters end up estranged), we return to the nursing home to discover that the elderly woman is, in fact, McAdams' character, who is suffering from dementia and cannot remember Duke, who is actually an older Gosling, and also now her husband.

Why It's Obvious: The film pretty much spells it out for you. The more the film cuts between the past and present, the more obvious it becomes that they are linked, and given the ages of the 1940s characters compared to their present-day counterparts, it all matches up pretty perfectly. It still manages to be a surprisingly effective if overrated romance, but the reveal is only mind-blowing if you're a 13-year-old girl pumped full of hormones.