Notting Hill

 

Notting Hill (1999) One of the most successful films ever made in the UK (according to the Internet). But was it that great? 

The plot is very simple. Hugh Grant plays an independent bookseller, who (we are told) is unaware of celebrities and the high life. By chance, he meets Hollywood star Julia Roberts and, unexpectedly, she kisses him. 

The film depicts their very interrupted relationship, ended each time because of some external event that drags her away. In the end, she comes back to him, only for him to reject her. After some rethinking, he states he is interested, and they live happily ever after. The last shot shows her lying on a park bench with her head in his lap; she is clearly pregnant. 

Who could complain about such a tale of wish-fulfilment? Well, I could, because the film has dated badly and because of it basic premise.

• There is never any genuine relationship between the two. She is always the worldly-wise film star; he is always the innocent, rather other-worldly average man. He a
• Except that we know he himself is a highly visible film star, and he does not convince as a nobody.
• Attempts by the scriptwriter to present Julia Roberts as fragile and looking for support do not convince. The script has to show her as larger than life, and the more it does that (for example, she confronts the group of males bad-mouthing her) the less we are convinced that she needs a man to look after her.
• So the film  is in the land of wish-fulfilment. The only really convincing points are when Hugh Grant is, mercifully, given some openly humorous moments, such as pretending to be a journalist from Horse & Hound, and when he attempts to give her the benefit of his knowledge about books to tell her not to buy the book she finally chooses, even though he tells her it is rubbish.
• Grant is far more convincing in Four Weddings and a Funeral, just three years later, or the Bridget Jones films. In this film, the most entertaining role is the Welsh flatmate, played by Rhys Ifans.
• In the end, we are asked to believe a relationship between a starstruck amateur and a sophisticated film star who firstly kisses him without warning (classic fantasy territory) and then declares everlasting love for him. Just before the conclusion, he rejects her advances because he doesn’t want to be disappointed again, as he has been twice before by her. He is subsequently convinced otherwise by his family and friends. I would have walked away from her at that point; he was right.