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Review by Susan Granger
4 stars out of 4
She's the most dazzling, famous movie star in the world and
he's the sheepish, fumbling proprietor of a tiny travel book store on
funky Notting Hill in London. Can they falls in love? Why not? In
this joyous, contemporary fairy tale, anything's possible. Especially
with a script by Richard Curtis ("Four Weddings and a Funeral) that's
reminiscent of Audrey Hepburn's "Roman Holiday." The set-up has Julia
Roberts, a glamorous American actress, meet Hugh Grant, a book-seller,
in his shop - after which he inadvertently spills orange juice all
over her T-shirt. She agrees to let him awkwardly clean her up in his
nearby flat and - well, nature takes its course. But their path to
romance has plenty of bumps which I won't ruin for you. Suffice it to
say, she's the impetuous aggressor, while he's wary. She's
sophisticated; he's shy. She's agile; he's clumsy. She's direct,
saying whatever she thinks; he's understated and evasive, musing,
"I've opened Pandora's box, and there's trouble inside." Director
Roger Michell has astutely assembled a superb British supporting cast,
particularly Rhys Ifans as Grant's wild, Welsh flat-mate and Emma
Chambers as his ditsy sister, with Alec Baldwin in an uncredited cameo
as Roberts' boy-friend who drops in unexpectedly. There are several
mischievous sequences involving the absolute idiocy people display in
the presence of a celebrity and a comic sparring-match with the
British tabloid press, plus a timely scandal involving obscene photos
and sly, amusing repartee involving Mel Gibson's bottom. On the
Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Notting Hill" is an amusing,
captivating, relentlessly entertaining 10 - a perfect date movie and
one of the most delightful films in years!
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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out of 4
