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Notting Hill [1999]
from Universal Pictures UK
starring Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts, Richard McCabe, Rhys Ifans, James Dreyfus
directed by Roger Michell

Features:

• Anamorphic
• PAL
• Widescreen

Editorial Review:

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 meeting 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 fulfilment 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. --Mark Englehart

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0

• Everything comes together...
  I have a confession to make: I didn't really enjoy Pretty Woman that much, and Four Weddings and a Funeral (not to mention Mickey Blue Eyes, Two Weeks Notice and About a Boy) didn't really do it for me.
  However, in Notting Hill, as far as I am concerned, everything comes together for Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant, delivering a landmark in the gentle countryside of romantic comedy.
  This is not the only time that Julia Roberts plays a version of herself -- she knowingly sends herself up in Ocean's... more info

• It's no worse really than the other rubbish rom coms I've seen by this stable
  As above - please don't ask me to waste more good words on this puny rubbish.

• Very Enjoyable
  This film really continued the trend of enjoyable rom-coms from the UK film market. There have been many more since from the "Ricard Curtis age" as some now call it, including - Four Weddings and Funeral, Love Actually and About a Boy

• Very funny
  This was a lot better than i thought it would be. It's very funny and has a good storyline. Well acted and well written, thumbs up.

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