Slick 'n' disposable - exactly what I expected

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2002)

"Notting Hill" is romantic fluff. Like all Hollywood romantic movies, the story is kept simple. In this case the plot's about as complex as an episode of Barney. Julia Roberts plays Anna Scott, while Hugh Grant is William Thacker. Thacker owns a book shop into which Scott wanders. Stuff happens, they fall for one another but there's only one problem - Scott is the world's most famous actress: can she fall in love with a normal man? (Can you guess the answer? Can you can you?!)
Hugh Grant doesn't grate here too much here as, once again, he plays the stuttering, mild-mannered foppish Enlish gent. His character is reasonably amusing, making dry self-referential remarks. His flat mate, played by Rhys Ifans, provides the more obvious humour by being Stock Character #25: The crazy flat mate. Roberts doesn't do much in this flick - she certainly doesn't seem to bother acting a whole lot. Her character is, easily, the most dull. She goes from stand-off cold to vague-hint-of-warmth, with a little dash of I-can-be-crazy-sometimes.
The script isn't exactly overwhelming. It's well enough written, and not all that dull. Credit for the fact they don't overplay the humour but keep it mild, or that the romance doesn't descend into slush, but kept at a fairly entertaining level. There's very little in the way of twists or surprises, but that's to be expected.. The movie also looks fairly pretty, ably directed by Roger Mitchell. Nothing fancy, but the shots are framed well, the locations set right to give the relevant emotions of the moment.
"Notting Hill" was obviously made-to-order, created with a set audience in mind. As such it's not exactly a wondrous movie but it's perfectly adequate at what it attempts to do. A reasonably addition to the genre - 6.5/10