Coup de foudre à Notting Hill

Whether or not realistic, this is a wonderfully touching fairy tale like story of the romance between two people of unequal social and financial standing. The beautiful, rich, and famous American movie star is superbly captured by the incomparable and always endearing Julia Roberts, who brings such a wonderful vulnerability to her roles. Hugh Grant is perfect as the shy, stammering, bumbling, unassuming, obscure, and not very affluent London bookseller, who shares a flat with his zany, weird roommate, Spike.

The tale revolves around the world's most famous actress, Anna Scott, who visits a Notting Hill travel bookshop and thereby meets the very ordinary British bookseller, William Thacker. Improbable as it might seem, the two fall in love despite the fact that Anna already has a 'significant other' in the form of the obnoxious star, Jeff, who treats her poorly. Alas, Anna and William's romance is of course subject to hounding by the ubiquitous media, making the course of true love definitely not run smooth.

Just an aside, but did the screenwriters get Hugh Grant's character's name from the Victorian novelist, William Makepeace Thackeray? It seems quite a coincidence. Ha, ha. Anyway, nice name...

The film does a marvelous job conveying what must resemble Julia Roberts' own fishbowl life, subject to constant media scrutiny and innuendo. She must have identified strongly with the character she was playing, not only the media nuisance but also the failed relationships so common among film stars. Her hounding by the paparazzi is also of course reminiscent of that plaguing the late Princess Diana, and of course, sadly, resulting in her death.

The portrayal of William's friends is very touching here, as their reaction transforms from understandable awe at socializing with such a famous star, to accepting and treating Anna as basically an ordinary person and good friend. The viewer gets a sense of how much this response, this genuine friendship means to Anna. One of William's friends is a disabled wife in a wheelchair. Her normal, ordinary life and attitude are well captured and would be well received, I believe, by viewers with physical disabilities.

The love story is beautifully depicted. The sadness of Anna's failed past romantic involvements is conveyed, and despite the fame, her vulnerability as being really just 'an ordinary girl in love with an ordinary boy'. The portrayal of William is touching, as he copes with all the media attention, sees the actual person behind all that fame, wealth, and glamour, and tries to give Anna the genuine security and the 'ordinary life' she so desperately craves. A fabulous, moving, and ultra romantic film with a relevant message regarding modern society's perception and treatment of its movie stars. We can all learn a lesson here.

Notting Hill is a neighborhood in London and it's the title of a romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. Two of the most unlikely lovers you could ever imagine get together here.

Grant is the respectable, but somewhat dull proprietor of a bookstore in Notting Hill which specializes in travel books. It looks like he's getting by, but truth be told Grant's perfectly happy with just making enough to pay the bills and a little extra.

Back in the day after she retired from the screen for almost 50 years it was one of those urban legends in New York City to spot Greta Garbo out and about and you'd never know but when she might get a notion to stop into a bookstore like Grant's. In this case Julia Roberts plays a movie star not unlike the real Julia Roberts. Garbo mysterious she's not.

For if she was I doubt Hugh Grant would have considered approaching her. As for Roberts she's looking at Grant as a bit of respite from her life in the media goldfish bowl. When she's discovered it's disaster for both of them.

Notting Hill is a nice romantic comedy with very believable leads in a fairy tale fantasy. I mean who doesn't have a fantasy of wooing and winning some celebrity you might admire or be crushing out on. In that sense Notting Hill has a universal appeal.

In an unbilled part Alec Baldwin plays her boyfriend whom we learn little about factually. But he comes across as an egotistical fathead. One thing you're certain of, no matter what happens with Grant, Roberts and Baldwin won't be an item much longer.

Notting Hill, a nice romantic comedy/fantasy. May you win the celebrity of your desires.

This movie is almost entirely character driven and it is great. It's very funny, positive and enjoyable. The story is very simple - classic boy meets girl (or vice-versa) scenario. However, Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts' outstanding performances propel this movie to greatness.

Hugh Grant delivers one of his best 'average, humble' guy performances in this movie. Many of his lines were some of the most witty and clever dialog I've heard in a while. Almost reminds me of how Jimmy Stewart could mumble lines and come off as brilliant.

Julia Roberts was sparkling as a somewhat forward but grounded movie star that one could relate to. It was pleasant to see lots of big smiles from Julia.

The other characters were literally 'characters' - bizarre, off-beat, odd-ball, goofy - but at heart warm and enjoyable to watch.

If you're in the mood for a good laugh and pleasant movie-going experience, this is a great movie to watch.

Notting Hill is a district of west London that was built as a fashionable Victorian suburb, became very run down during the mid twentieth century and is now once again fashionable, but which retains a distinctly cosmopolitan atmosphere, with London's biggest street market and many small specialist shops. (My wife and I sometimes go there to shop for bargains). The hero of the film, William Thacker, is the owner of one of these shops, a travel bookshop. The film concerns the romance which develops between William and a young woman named Anna Scott whom he meets when she comes into his shop.

As another reviewer has pointed out, 'Notting Hill' is based around a theme, love between people of unequal social standing, which has provided literature with some of its greatest works, both comic and serious, dating back at least to the tale of King Cophetua and the beggar-maid. Although many of these stories tell of a poor but honest lad who aspires to the hand of a princess or titled lady, Anna is not part of the Royal Family or the British aristocracy. She rather belongs to an even more exclusive elite, the Hollywood starocracy. She is a hugely popular film star who earns at least $15,000,000 per film, and pops into William's shop during a brief stay in London to publicise her latest movie.

Although Anna is played by a real-life Hollywood superstar, Julia Roberts, the film is very typically British. William is similar to an number of other Hugh Grant characters, being a shy, diffident middle-class Englishman, probably public-school and university educated. (Despite this background, he is not particularly wealthy following a divorce from his first wife and is forced to share his lodgings with an eccentric Welsh flatmate, Spike). The humour of the film, particularly the dinner-party banter between William and his friends, is mostly of the typically ironic, self-deprecating variety popular in Britain, especially in middle-class circles. Rhys Ifans's Spike, by contrast, typifies another strand of British humour, the eccentric zaniness found in the likes of 'Monty Python'. Spike's strong provincial accent suggests a more working-class background; this possibly accounts for the teasing that he has to put up with from the other characters, although he takes it all in good part.

William may be diffident, self-deprecating and unsuccessful, but he is probably the stronger of the two main characters. Anna is beautiful and successful, but underneath it all she is insecure, worried about losing her fame and fortune and about her inability to form lasting relationships with men. Early on in the film she has another boyfriend, Jeff, but it is clear that he is only the latest in a long string of unsatisfactory romances which have left her emotionally (and in some cases physically) bruised. The scene where Anna says to William 'I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her' is the one where we see her at her most vulnerable. Although both characters are in their late twenties or thirties, it is noteworthy that Anna refers to 'girl and boy' rather than 'woman and man'. Anna's vulnerability also comes through in her reaction in the scene where hordes of paparazzi appear on William's doorstep; William tries to play down the incident, and Spike finds it hugely amusing, but Anna is horrified. (The film was made shortly after the death of Princess Diana; this scene possibly reflects British disgust with the antics of the paparazzi, who were regarded as being partly to blame for the Princess's death). Like others, I found myself wondering how much Anna's personality reflects Julia Roberts's own; she too has had a number of unhappy relationships.

Important roles are also played by Tim McInnerny and Gina McKee as William's best friend Max and his disabled wife Bella; the love of this ordinary couple for each other provides a more realistic, down-to-earth counterpart to the fairy-tale romance of William and Anna, helping to anchor the film more firmly in reality. The main charm, however, lies in the relationship of the two main characters, as Anna comes to realise that the seemingly ordinary William has a kindness and decency which count for more than the monstrous egos of Jeff and his like. Like 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', which was also written by Richard Curtis and starred Hugh Grant, 'Notting Hill' is one of the warmest and most human British films of the nineties. 7/10

This film was surprisingly good, not my favourite romantic comedy in the world, and personally I think Love Actually and Four Weddings and a Funeral are better. But it is a good film, thanks to the strong performances, fresh script and the film's look. While not laugh out loud funny, Notting Hill is nonetheless warm and charming. The script is fresh, sometimes funny, sometimes insightful. The part where Anna says "I am just a girl, standing in front of a boy, waiting for him to love her", may be cringe worthy to some people, but for me no matter how clichéd it is it shows a vulnerable side to Anna's character. The film is based on love revolved around unequal social standing, William being diffident and unsuccessful, Anna being the complete opposite. The photography is fabulous and the direction is excellent. Hugh Grant is charming as William and Julia Roberts is positively luminous as Anna, and the two have strong chemistry. Out of the supporting performers, Rhys Ifans stands out in a very zany turn as Spike. The music is lovely too. All in all, this is very warm, charming and pleasant, yeah the ending is predictable, but this is a well written and quite irresistible film. 8.5/10 Bethany Cox