They don't really make many romantic comedies like Notting Hill
anymore--blissfully romantic, sincerely sweet, and not grounded
in any reality whatsoever. Pure fairy tale, and with a huge debt
to Roman Holiday, Notting Hill ponders what would happen if a beautiful,
world-famous person were to suddenly drop into your life unannounced
and promptly fall in love with you. That's the crux of the situation
for William Thacker (Hugh Grant), who owns a travel bookshop in
London's fashionable Notting Hill district.
Hopelessly ordinary (well, as ordinary as you can be when you're
Hugh Grant), William is going about his life when renowned movie
star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) walks into his bookstore and into
his heart. After another contrived meet-cute involving spilled orange
juice, William and Anna share a spontaneous kiss (big suspension
of disbelief required here), and soon both are smitten. The question
is, of course, can William and Anna reconcile his decidedly commonplace
bookseller existence and her lifestyle as a jet-setting, paparazzi-stalked
celebrity? (Take a wild guess at the answer.) Smartly scripted by
Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and directed by Roger
Michell (Persuasion), Notting Hill is hardly realistic, but as wish
fulfillment and a romantic comedy, it's irresistible. True, Roberts
doesn't really have to stretch very far to play a big-time actress
who makes $15 million per movie, but she's more winning and relaxed
than she's been in years, and Grant is sweetly understated as a
man blindsided by love. Together, in moments of quiet, they're a
charming couple, and you can feel her craving for real love and
his awe and amazement at the wonderful person for whom he has fallen.
The only blight on the film is its overbearing pop soundtrack, though
Elvis Costello's heart-wrenching version of "She" gets poignant
exposure. With Rhys Ifans as Grant's scene-stealing, slovenly housemate
and Alec Baldwin in a sly, perfectly cast cameo.
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