L'amour sans préavis

Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant hearken back to classic screwball comedies in a very engaging if somewhat shallow romantic film that accentuates laughter above sentiment and succeeds wonderfully - even when it's not especially witty or gut-busting.

Bullock plays Lucy Kelson, a committed left-wing attorney with an immaculate Ivy League background who fights the good fight against the heartless developers of lower Manhattan and the outer boroughs. Complications ensue when she finds herself working for one such figure, George Wade (Grant) in exchange for his preserving a Coney Island landmark near her childhood home. Wade's not a bad guy, but he's frightfully dependent on Lucy for everything. When it seems possible she might at last get clear of him, she begins to have second thoughts about letting him go.

Two things I really, really like about this movie. One is the chemistry of Grant and Bullock. Bullock takes to being the butt of assorted slapstick with a gusto rare for a gorgeous screen star. She seems to have inherited the Doris Day mantle from Julia Roberts and Meg Ryan, though in a better way than either of those two screen stars. It's a pity she's since shown no interest in maintaining it. Grant plays off her very well in a role he could perform in his sleep - and sometimes seems to do just that, albeit in a good way. He has a casual way with a line that reminds me of Roger Moore or David Niven at their best, and shows he is growing comfortably into a solid on-screen presence after years of coasting on looks and charm. If IMDb.com is correct, he got paid $12.5 million for this, which if true is way too high, but he is probably the one guy who could make Wade so enjoyable, to the point where you're happy at his shenanigans for keeping Lucy by his side.

The other thing is the NYC backdrop. There's some eye-popping visuals courtesy of legendary cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs, like the bridges lit up like Christmas trees in the background while Bullock has a drunk moment with Grant aboard his yacht. Another scene features a helicopter shot of Manhattan by the Hudson, with a nice nod at 9/11 that doesn't impose itself on the viewer but is there for the noticing. (This was the first film shot in the city after the tragedy.) You can compare "Two Weeks Notice" with classic romantic comedies like "What's Up Doc?" or "Bringing Up Baby." Not that it's as good, but the goal is similar in that it strives to entertain more than play with one's heartstrings.

Alright, the story is shallow. We never really get a sense of Kelson's duties with Wade except when it comes to being pulled out of weddings to pick out ties. Her absentee boyfriend is barely established. The supporting cast is not well developed, except Robert Klein and Dana Ivey as Lucy's parents. (Klein especially is wonderful.) Alicia Witt is spellbindingly gorgeous as Kelton's would-be replacement, and she plays wonderfully off the main pair, but she's suddenly thrust into the role of the heavy simply for plot convenience, and it's jarring. Too many other secondary roles are like that, too.

The script, by director Marc Lawrence, has its share of lame one-liners, but it keeps a steady, merry tempo that distracts from the film's shortcomings at least somewhat while focusing on its key strengths, Bullock and Grant. Lawrence's direction is similarly solid. I like the little bits of business between Bullock and Grant, like when they pick off each others' plates at Fraunces Tavern, or when she refuses his offer of a sidewalk kebob, calling it a "flesh popsicle." The scene that sticks out most is of her at an outdoor party, wearing a lovely tulle gown and a clown nose. This is one film that makes a serious point of being goofy and glamorous all at once, and it works. If all romantic comedies were so committed to being entertaining, it would be a lot easier for us guys to sit through them.

I am sick of defending romantic comedies on this site. Every time a new one hits our screens IMDb is absolutely inundated with reviews containing the words, boring and predictable.

Most of the time these reviews are written by people who are just annoyed that nobody was killed or nobody fired a gun or blew up a building or whatever. GROW UP.

This is the last time I'm going to say this but romantic comedies work to a successful formula which have worked well for seventy odd years and that is why they are successful, they are not going to change them and we certainly hope they don't so everyone please stop moaning for heavens sake. Maybe your action movies are a bit "same ol' same ol'" but do we slag them off to you? NO. So CAN IT.

Now my little rant and rave is over onto the film in question.

Sandra Bullock is in my opinion the greatest living comedy actress alive today. She is sexy and gifted and has the perfect talent and timing to easily take over the mantle of stars like Irene Dunne, Jean Arthur, Katherine Hepburn, Doris Day and more recently Meg Ryan as a true queen of Rom-Com.

It's my opinion that in fifty years time Sandra Bullock will be regarded as a screen great like the great actresses mentioned above. She has the ability to adapt between comedic and dramatic roles with perfect ease making us cry or laugh with equal vigour. I suppose she is almost like a female version of Cary Grant in that respect.

In Two Weeks Notice she is given so much chance to make us laugh and she fails to miss one of them. I especially like the part when she says she can also speak German and Japanese and then turns down an offer using both, followed by one of her rye giggles....hilarious and clever.

Hugh Grant, never really strays too far away from Hugh Grant but again as in the case of Ben Stiller and Adam Sandler this persona is what has made him a star and that is what he successfully does. It seems however that in this film he does it better than in any other film before.

It's a love story between a radical left wing lawyer (Bullock) and a capitalist, heartless tycoon (Grant).

He's been using her for her intellect and she has been using him and his money for her own charitable organizations, but when she decides to quit, the last two weeks sees their relationship change into something neither of them seem to want to part with.

The script is funny and fast paced and both are handed good comedy material to sink their teeth into. Hugh Grant is surrounded by beautiful women throughout the film giving him the opportunity to work his English charm school act, and with another sexy secretary in the picture, Bullock is given her opportunity to spar in her own inimitable way. The schoolyard type fight over the stapler is a great example and gut-wrenchingly funny.

An enjoyable film and one deserving pride of place on any DVD shelf. Incidentally check out the feature commentary between Bullock, Grant and Marc Lawrence. It's very funny and shows that the magic between them poured right off the film and leaked into real life.

As for one of the previous reviewers who referred to Sandra Bullock as FAT, I lay my gauntlet at your feet sir and it's pistols at ten. You may like her acting or loathe her, but fat she ain't.

"Two Weeks Notice" tells of the romantic misadventures of a playboy tycoon (Grant) and a "greenie" attorney (Bullock) who can't seem to get along until they finally realize what they can't get along without is each other. On the downside, the film is the usual romcom fare with nothing in particular to distinguish it from a panoply of peers. On the up side, the flick is chock full of Lawrence's humor which made "Miss Congeniality" and "Forces of Nature" so enjoyable. Entertaining stuff worth a look for Bullock or Grant fans and romcom junkies. (B-)

TWO WEEKS NOTICE (2002) *** Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Alicia Witt, Dana Ivey, Robert Klein, Dorian Missick, Heather Burns, Jason Antoon. Charming screwball romantic comedy with Bullock as an A-type/neo-hippie cum grass-roots lawyer who finds herself employed by wealthy conglomerate merger type businessman Grant and after attempting to get him to change his ways gives her titular ultimatum only to discover – you got it – they are really meant for one another. The film may be formulaic but its stars have that special, instant and utterly natural chemistry together helped with a crackling zingerfest screenplay by its director Marc Lawrence who manages to make the creaky device work even if its last act is by rote and Witt as Bullock's replacement (in more ways than one) is a pallid shadow of `All About Eve' .

Two Weeks Notice (2002)

Hugh Grant is funny. Sandra Bullock is funny. "Two Weeks Notice" takes full advantage of both, and for a warm, if someone canned, romantic comedy, it's enjoyable.

The premise is two-fold. First is the idea that Bullock makes herself indispensable as an assistant to an unbelievably demanding boss (an precursor of the more recent "The Devil Wears Prada" though in this case Grant is also a bit incompetent). Then she has to give notice she is quitting. This makes Grant desperate, which is always fun to watch.

The other premise is the feel-good part where a community center with history needs to be saved, somehow (an echo, perhaps, of "You've Got Mail"). Bullock is a do-gooder and a smart one, and she finds working with Grant has threatened her idealism. In fact, this is the deeper part of the movie, if still treated with typical easy going slightness. I mean, this is no serious commentary for sure, any more than "My Man Godfrey" will really change our views about unemployment in the depression. But it helps to have a cause to root for.

Most of all I came to love Bullock for her natural on-screen personality. She's so likable in her own offbeat way you come to support her view of the world automatically. And in this case that's a good thing, even if you also understand how Grant's character is both a jerk and a lovable misguided rich man. Grant of course is his own kind of natural, and the two are rather good on screen. They might not have chemistry, the way you'd want the screen to steam up, but they have energy or synergy together, more like the other Grant (Cary) and some of his counterparts did in the old days.

I'm tilting this review toward a feeling that this is a screwball comedy as in the the late 30s and early 40s, and in a way it is, though not nutty enough perhaps to really qualify. It does have the standard romantic comedy problem of two leads who would be great together if only a million things weren't standing in the way.

This movie gets weak reviews overall, but I liked it, and don't hesitate to recommend it as a thin but enjoyable comedy.