Notting Hill [1999]

I wasn't much excited at its arrival as it quietly stayed on my desk in an Amazon sealed box for a few days. It was only recently that after much strenuous hours of constant study I decided to take a break and watch it. The soothing mental massage that I received while watching it cannot be explained. During these years I have definitely grown up. I believe that this time what I saw in this movie, I had certainly failed to see before. Last time, it was just another love story for me, whereas this time it turned out to be more intense and definitely more spiritual and ofcourse entertaining. This time it didn't look like a fairy tale of a famous Hollywood star falling in for a simple British bloke. But, in fact it looked very "real", conveying the power of interpersonal relations and the vast play-field of human connectedness. So to me, Nottinghill is no longer a fairy tale but a very successful project of human psychology and how people can reach out and relate to one another through an invisible connection. It is actually a good idea to pick Nottinghill again, if you think you have passed through the passionate immature phase of your life and have entered the deeper side of human maturity.

Nice, short, very -very British, crisp, funny dialogues interwoven with spontaneous "Uhhhs, O'Os, Ummms and Ahms"...making it all so real and human along with the absolutely gripping soundtrack starting from Costello's "She", introducing the ever beautiful, elegant and well...highly professional Julia, in a role befitting for "just her" and quickly taking the viewer to the smart-looking Oxbridge Hugh-very much "a boy in blue shirt"-walking reflectively through a market square in his London village- Nottinghill, but carrying that aura of coming out of one of the formal halls at Oxford ,will not let you leave your couch till the fim ends... cause it is all so adorable and splendid.

Half of the enjoyment comes from listening to the dialogues without a need to stress out to make sense of them. They are so very natural. One actually gets to enjoy the flavor of "natural, brief but well-said" one-liners and even one-worders. That also informs us about how much work, "accurate and precise utterances" brings to an artist, who while saying less, has to express much- much more non-verbally. And, this is exactly where Julia and Hugh come in to surpass many of the other contemporary performers from Hollywood. Both are brilliant and have an extremely, impressively, expressive body language. Julia's twinkling eyes, and the ups and downs of her voice sometimes expressing a child-like urgency and at others... extreme mellowness, the quiver of her lips and the posing of her shoulders and idle swaying of hands is so much in consonance to those one-liners that one while watching the film, literally can't help smiling and getting tearful along with her. This is very much true for Hugh too. The other enjoying bit in listening is the totally distinct British and American accents coming from both Hugh and Julia respectively. Hugh asking her if she would like to have a "Baath" and getting the answer that a "baith" would be a good idea makes one smile irresistibly. He is so very British and she is so very American that he can't stop offering her tea(and not coffee as most Americans would prefer to be offered) and she can't help just ignoring, cause its really not her preferable drink after all... and still the love keeps on blossoming further and further on. The other half of enjoyment, a treat for the viewer's eyes, come from the attractive personalities of Julia and Hugh and their comic co-stars especially Spikey- the Welshman, thoroughly hilarious in his well chosen briefs! And, also the artist who acted as Hugh's baby sister..the one with "funny goggly eyes and shrinking boosies", a wonderful performer. The referring dialogues on Demi Moore, Patrick Swayze, Mel Gibson and Meg Ryan are well scripted and Julia delivers them brilliantly and with a nice smile, making Hollywood look like a little family. The one regarding Mel Gibson is extremely funny, where Julia's smile actually turns into an insinuating chuckle making it all the more humourous and amusing than the actual scripted dialogue...the viewer is cleverly given a moment to enjoy it all in the context of Julia and Mel being colleagues in real life.

However, I won't write it all here because it is actually a good reason and a good idea to pick Nottinghill again. Enjoy!


classic!   September 1, 2006
S. Firth (Leeds, UK)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

how anyone can say this film is bad is beyond me!

it's one of the best chick-flicks around and i love the film so much i've nearly worn out my tape! It's not really about Notting Hill it's about a person who lives there and falls in love with a hollywood star. Who cares that it doesnt have the Carnival in it.

Julia Roberts is one of my favourite actresses, she's briliant and, although i dont class Hugh Grant as one of my faves, he's so good in this film as the hopeless Will! I love Spike and Will's sister. Spike just cracks me up all the time.

i just love this film and definately think you should buy it, ignore the bad reviews - or take them into account but dont believe them! this film is fabulous!


One of the best romantic films ever!!   January 31, 2007
SJ SMART (London)
11 out of 12 found this review helpful

I love this film! I'm not a huge fan of romantic comedies but this one is an exception. I love the story because I kind of hope that Julia Roberts will walk in to my shop and fall for me! I think this is the key to the success of the story, that a Hollywood A-list celebrity meets an ordinary guy and they have a relationship. Not likely to happen but fun to imagine.

There are some great performances throughout, set in a great part of London and its full of laughs! I love the ending in the press conference when Hugh's character tells her he has made a mistake and wants her back in "coded" language which the Journalists slowly cotton on to and the place errupts! A great heart warming film. It needs 10 stars!


Notting Hill   November 24, 2005
Rich Milligan (Thatcham, Berkshire)
9 out of 12 found this review helpful

Poor old “Notting Hill”, this charming and entertaining film is far too often compared to “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and perhaps derided for another Hugh Grant “floppy haired bumbling Englishman” role when really it’s a fine and delightful film in its own right.

William Thacker is your average thirty-something Londoner, trying to make end meet running his own specialist travel bookshop in the Notting Hill area. His mundane day to day routine is well and truly shaken up when world famous actress Anna Scott visits his shop and purchases a book. Being the ultra-polite Englishman he is, William is far too well-mannered to draw attention to the gorgeous Ms Scott or be crass and ask for an autograph. When he bumps into her (literally) in the street only minutes later and spills a cup of orange juice over her he is only too quick to invite her into his house (the one with the blue door) and let her clean herself up. Gratified by both this charming and honest approach in contrast to the either bitchy or sycophantic way she is normally dealt with Anna is swept off her feet and ends their tryst by planting a huge smacker on the surprised William’s mouth.

What happens then is the wholly enjoyable if not wholly unlikely and wholly predictable love story between these two extremely likeable characters. The ups and downs are thoroughly entertaining and include many a hilarious scene, whether it’s the magazine interview for Horse and Hounds, Spike’s doorstep posing or William wearing goggles in the cinema. The story isn’t just about comedy though; the romantic scenes are finely crafted and have a poignancy of their own.

Where for me the film does fall down if we must compare it to other is that there isn’t any sub-plot to speak of, or even other characters that we can get interested in Four Weddings was just as much about Charles’ friends as it was about Charles, whereas here the story is all about William and Anna and although the minor characters are unforgettable in their own way they don’t actually do anything apart from provide background.

Where the film wins outright though is the charisma of the two leads. In anyone else hands the film could easily become either cloying or sickening but with the ever delightful Julia Roberts and her smile that can charm the birds out of the sky and Hugh Grant who is often unfairly criticised but no-one can play this type of role better than him, the romance remains bubbly, heart warming and enchanting.