Pleasant, light fare with some obvious flaws

Rating: 3/10 (17 December 2004)

British romantic comedies are virtually indistinguishable from their American counterparts. This is a blessing and a curse. The characters exist in a sort of rarefied air of effortless upper/upper middle class sensibility. However, this is so endemic to films it's not really worth going into. "Kid in love" part taken a little too seriously. I had crushes when I was eleven too, but my father wouldn't spend two seconds thinking about my puppy love infatuations, kids need to figure this sort of stuff out on their own. The shy porn stars? Don't think they exist. This goes in with "unsightly Brit gets laid in Wisconsin" bit. I know the writer is going for a certain kind of absurdest sensibility in his humor, but it just doesn't play. Americans in general like British accents- it doesn't really work the other way, unfortunately, but I think the Wisconsin Tourist Board was behind this in an attempt to lure British males to the land of Cheeseheads and Lands' End. Hugh Grant was good as the PM, funny in that bit about the SAS. What was that visit by the US President though? Billy Bob Thornton was a sort of Bush-arrogant/Clinton-lewd hybrid? I think those criticisms are probably accurate, but even Clinton would never openly make a pass at a British Government worker at Downing Street on an official state visit. Oh, and the press conference! Please! Brits- you are not some put upon, bullied country! Stop acting like you are! Only one country in the world exceeds America in terms of national chauvinism and arrogance and that's the UK! I lived there, I know. I love your guys, seriously, you have a beautiful country with tons to offer the world culturally and politically. But stop your whining. By the way, it is no longer brave or risqué to be so openly anti-American, it's very trendy and fashionable. And the people that applaud this sort of "Cool Brittania" counter attack to American bullying I'll wager know the least about international politics. I wish Billy Bob would've given back in that conference. Something even Jimmy Carter would've done. And Hugh Grant had a picture of Thatcher on the wall. Was he supposed to be a Tory? If so, that press conference was even farther off base than originally assessed.