Written by: Richard Curtis
Starring: Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Hugh Bonneville, Emma Chambers, James Dreyfus, Rhys Ifans
Rating: [2.5/5]
Romances between a celebrity and a normal person serves as the inspiration for many dreams, but also fan fiction as a source of hope. A hope that the famous person will pluck out that individual and completely change their lives. Notting Hill utilizes this dynamic and while we have Julia Roberts in full superstar mode, she must continually fend off a lackluster story that does not quite measure up to her.
Owning a small bookstore in London, Will Thacker (Hugh Grant) greets an unexpected patron, movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), who’s in town to film a new project. A few chance encounters begins the fermentation of feelings between them that only further gets complicated with the difference in their positions in life.
Several elements of Notting Hill have this dreamlike aura to it where it feels as much as a fantasy as it does just a plain romantic comedy. For starters, we have a protagonist in Will who owns a bookstore solely focused on travel books. The idea a bookstore like this in the current landscape of the industry could exist boggles my mind, but as the rest of the story plays out it only makes further sense that we’re in fantasy land here. The other fantastical element appears in the believability that Anna would find Will charming, which ultimately lets this whole film down as this central couple just does not have the juice.
This film has maintained a pristine reputation and quality and stands as one of the most beloved romantic comedies but taking this in for the first time left me with nothing but disappointment in the weakness of the narrative. We continually have this push and pull between these two characters where they seemingly cannot avoid each other within one of the busiest cities in the world but no real spark or magic really manifests here for them. Instead, we have Hugh Grant trying to apply his charm that has made him famous, but it pales mightily to Julia Roberts as she tries her very best to carry this film on her back.
Roberts always gets touted for having this magnificent smile and it certainly did wonders in this film. Just by her smile it reverberated through the screen and screams that she’s a movie star and it allowed me to reflect that she’s one of a kind. There are no other Julia Roberts out there nor will there ever be, and in this feature she demonstrates exactly why. Her character maintained intrigue throughout the film as Anna always had something under the surface, something eating away at her but could hide behind that smile. The film would have fared better with a larger focus on her instead of the fairly uninteresting Will, but the narrative decision was made to leave Anna as this larger-than-life figure, as visually displayed in the poster. The story kept us at arm’s length from Anna for the majority of the runtime for a valid reason but they then needed the proper counterbalance in Will to keep us entertained and that never delivered.
Most of the issues surrounding this film center on Will, seeing as Anna brought the romance and the rest of Will’s family brought the comedy as befitting this genre. Every moment spent with Will’s parents and sister delivered the funniest moments throughout the film. Their reaction to Anna unexpectedly coming in as his date for a dinner brought the necessary comic relief to really sink in the further magnanimity of having this movie star just hang out with them. If anything, that dinner scene proved to be the best scene of the entire film because of that proper balance but unfortunately we did not get as much of it as needed to salvage this project overall.
Fairly lacking overall even though it fully displayed why Julia Roberts stood peerless during her run in the 1990s, Notting Hill asks the audience to buy into this romance between a commoner and a movie star, but I was never fully convinced. Despite the charm offensive put on by Hugh Grant, this character never allowed me to feel the connection he builds with Anna leaving this to feel like a one-sided effort in creating this movie magic. Elements of the narrative and the decisions made just never did it for me and left me scratching my head as to why this film remains revered as the gold standard of this genre when other far better examples exist.
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