Notting Hill

Notting Hill

“Every man's dream comes true for William Thacker, an unsuccessful Notting Hill bookstore owner, when Anna Scott, the world's most beautiful woman and best-liked actress, enters his shop. A little later, he still can't believe it himself, William runs into her again - this time spilling orange juice over her. Anna accepts his offer to change in his nearby apartment, and thanks him with a kiss, which seems to surprise her even more than him. Eventually, Anna and William get to know each other better over the months, but being together with the world's most wanted woman is not easy - neither around your closest friends, nor in front of the all-devouring press.”

1.5 stars

Why are so many people high on this movie? I don’t understand. I mean, I like Julia Roberts and the only thing I really know about Hugh Grant is that he likes to get BJs on Sunset Boulevard from skanky prostitutes. But they seem like they should put forth an enjoyable movie. And the writer, I’m told, was supposed to be very good because he did 4 weddings and Funeral. All of these ingredients coupled with the fact that this film was such a commercial and critical success when it came out should mean that I would enjoy it right? Guess not.

Both of their characters just bothered me. Anna (Julia Roberts) is basically a stereotypical spoiled actress who treats William (Hugh Grant) like a toy that she occasionally like to play with while she’s in London. She comes off as an incredibly self involved person with no regard for William’s emotions. But it’s not just her fault. William is one of the biggest pussies I’ve ever seen on screen. He never calls Anna out on her shit, and when he finally gathers up enough testosterone to say “No” to her, he ends up caving about 5 minutes later. I gotta say I had high hopes during the first few scenes of the movie, but when Alec Baldwin made his cameo as Anna’s American actor-boyfriend things got about as screwed up as a phone call Alec would make to his daughter.

And don’t get me started on the soundtrack. We’ve all seen movies that had soundtracks which helped the film (ie Almost Famous), but it takes a lot of shittynes to have the music hurt a film. Separately, the songs in the movie are all pretty good and some of them are classics. But they are used in such places that they almost describe exactly what is going on in the scene. It’s ridiculous. At one point Anna leaves England after she and William have an argument. I was just waiting for them to use another blatantly obvious track like “Ain’t no Sunshine When She’s Gone” . . . AND THEN THEY DID!!!

I’m not sure what’s going on. Romantic Comedies are my guilty pleasure, but I can’t like this one. Maybe I’m missing something but the movie just comes off as frustrating, predictable, and a little bit sad. And just to put the final nail in the coffin, the movie inexplicably spends an extra five minutes at the end showing the two characters getting married and then Anna being pregnant. Really?! Excuse me while I got throw up.