NOTTING HILL Cast: Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Hugh Bonneville, Emma Chambers, James Dreyfus, Rhys Ifans, Tim McInnerny, Gina McKee Director: Roger Michell Screenplay: Richard Curtis Reviewed by Luke Buckmaster
On the Buckmaster scale of 0 stars (bomb), to 5 stars (a masterpiece): 2 and a half stars
Recently cinema looked at what happened when an ordinary man rose to instant stardom in EdTV, and in Notting Hill the premise is almost reversed: what happens when a man whose mother barely remembers his name becomes romantically involved with the world's most famous actress? Surprising, not much. Richard Curtis, who has established himself as a fine comedy writer after Four Weddings and a Funeral and his work in Blackadder and Mr. Bean, penned this gentle romantic comedy that takes few risks and lacks a steady pace. The highlights (and there are many) of the picture do not come from Roger Michell's glossy direction, but rather Curtis' sense of what type of humor works and when.
Hugh Grant plays William Thacker, owner of a travel bookstore in Notting Hill, described as a "small village in the middle of a city." He lives with the "roommate from hell," Spike (Rhys Ifans), a lovable but repulsive man who'd just as soon eat mayonnaise as he would yogurt. Thacker lives a quiet, reasonably lonely life until our woman in question, Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), walks into his shop and buys a book. Through a lucky coincidence (actually, there's quite a few in this film), the two bump into each other again (literally), and love is, um, in the air. Of course, Thacker experiences a few problems with dating the world's hottest star, ranging from a Hollywood boyfriend to the paparazzi.
Hugh Grant reprises the style of acting that made his rise to fame formidable. His gentleman-like manners coupled with humorous dialogue is an agreeable combination, and Grant, whose reputation has suffered somewhat over the last few years (remember that incident with a prostitute, anyone?) would be well advised to choose more roles of this nature. Julia Roberts really plays Julia Roberts, and does so with such a loud sense of fame that she becomes a little irritating. A cleverer move would have been to cast Roberts' character to a relative unknown. This would enable Anna Scott's fame to feel more original and fresh, rather than forced. I'm convinced that Roger Michell took the easy way out.
But there's still plenty of things to like in Notting Hill, none of which are quite as refreshing as the film's supporting characters. William Thacker's group of friends are a delightful bunch. One of them fails to recognize Scott and, upon hearing that she is an actor, explains that it is a low-paying profession ("So how much did you make from your last film?" "Fifteen million."). There's even a scene near the end that positions most of them in a car, racing against time, all screaming and screeching. The driver stops the car and exclaims, "James Bond never had to put up with this shit!" Once again, Richard Curtis' comedic sense is right on.
Although Notting Hill boasts fun characters and funny jokes (nowadays its quite rare to find a romantic comedy that's actually funny), at its heart is a relationship that's almost passionless. I suspect that this is largely due to Michell's direction, which seems to imply the romance rather than develop it. I got the sense that perhaps the best romantic parts of Notting Hill were left on the editing room floor, or perhaps they just weren't there to begin with. Either way, Grant's performance - though very enjoyable to watch - doesn't help. He must have something against revealing any emotion in his dialogue. But besides this rather major fault, let me stress again that Notting Hill is a pleasing and often involving film. And, if you can, I suggest that you duck out of the cinema five minutes early to avoid a dreadful final reel.
Read more of my reviews at In Film Australia http://infilmau.iah.net
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews