|
Alphabetic Index
|
Ratings Index
|
Web Resources
|
Alphabetic Index
|
Ratings Index
|
Web Resources
Regardless of whether your out-loud answer was a yes or a no, director Roger Michell's very savvy and cleverly endearing comedy is betting that deep down you're a true believer, a hopeless romantic. That, in return for a sweet love story, you're willing to look the other way when matters seem a bit improbable. And of course it doesn't hurt the film's emotional appeal that the starry-eyed lovers in question are played by such visually fetching folk as Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant.
She is Anna Scott, a major Hollywood star in every sense of the term; he is William Thacker, her genteel and unassuming antithesis. Her social life, real as well as imagined, is played out in the tabloids. He has found comfort, if not love, running a cute little book shop in a quaintly charming section of London (Notting Hill), surrounded by his infinitely loyal group of oddball friends (their follies and foibles conveniently provide the humorous side business and the perfunctory sub-plots). Bite a brick from the precious set location and surely it will taste of gingerbread. Why wouldn't a harried Hollywoodian want to escape to the modest charms of William's world?
We imagine that if Her Glossiness had never set foot in his shop, eloquently self-effacing William, roundly drawn by a uniquely glib Mr. Grant, might have lived out his years a properly reserved gentleman, perhaps politely philosophical about how love had evaded him. But then there'd be no love affair to relate, no movie to make. And so, enters stage right, Anna, the poor little famous girl whose whirlwind lifestyle doesn't exactly lend itself to the simpler things in life, like sincerity. The shopkeeper has oodles of it, virtually traffics in the stuff.
For William, it is love at first ogle. But while he is completely smitten with his famous customer, she is simply too mammoth a commodity to allow herself such instantaneous and pedestrian emotions. With a keenly acquired sixth sense, Anna automatically weighs everything against how it will affect her career. But when they meet a second time, the magic of kismet momentarily clouds the movie star's judgement; impulsively, she steals a kiss. And though she apologises, we come to suspect that this is a powerful woman, accustomed to getting what she wants; her stardom is no mistake. Yet again they depart as a bewitched, bothered and bewildered William stumbles for words, innocently offering that their encounter was, er, "surreal." Naturally, she can't help but think this poor mortal is adorable.
Perhaps taking a cue from Henry Kissinger, who opined that power is the greatest aphrodisiac, Anna Scott isn't just a stunner; she is an alluring force to be contended with, and Miss Roberts sends off the sparkling aura like gangbusters. Enjoying icon status since her highly successful title role in Pretty Woman, the film beauty no doubt has some definite ideas about all-out stardom. That she is able to proffer these opinions, intertwined with Anna's pendulous, anxiety-causing interest in William, is testament to her considerable skill. For while Anna and William may not be a match made in movie credibility heaven, Miss Roberts and Mr. Grant are. Their energy-charged chemistry, combined with Richard Curtis' (Four Weddings and A Funeral) witty script and director Roger Michell's solid sense of ebb and flow, catapults this bright-eyed audience-pleaser past its valleys of implausibility.
But while the natural inclination is to hope that William is lucky in love, we are miffed when his courtliness in this reverse Cinderella saga makes him appear the shrinking violet to Anna's sexy Svengali. Entertainingly aggravated, we ponder: Just who does this manipulative movie mogul think she is? And why, for gosh sakes, doesn't Willy boy stop being such a wimp? Hence, the enchanting film's ability to engage us.
Director Michell's romantic comedy with a British accent, wherein buttoned-down English humour meets Hollywood fantasy, trades on the familiar war dance that all would-be lovers act out. But with such photogenic entities doing the mental thrusting and parrying, and displayed in such idyllically textured circumstances, the vicarious glamour makes Notting Hill an irresistible destination.
|
Alphabetic Index
|
Ratings Index
|
Web Resources