This ain't how it is in the real world!

Rating: Null/10 (19 May 2001)

If you can accept the movie's being a totally unrealistic fantasy, I suppose it was done well. Hugh Grant is a prepossessing actor, and setting him up opposite Julia Roberts made for an interesting contrast. There were also a lot of genuinely funny lines, and I particularly like Spike, the boorish Welsh roommate.
But the completely unrealistic portrayal of the subject matter rubbed me the wrong way. Okay, you may say this was meant to be escapist, so that I shouldn't judge it for its lack of interest in realism. Maybe if I could believe its makers never meant it to be seen as anything but an unrealistic, escapist fantasy, I could agree with that. But this movie seems to be trying to pass itself off as reality. At best, that's an insult to my intelligence -- to expect me to believe the events in this movie could really happen. At worst, it's a deliberate attempt to fool the viewer into thinking that this is what life is supposed to be like -- which is a sure-fire formula for breeding discontent and bitterness.