overcomes reality successfully!

Rating: 8/10 (24 January 2007)

Notting Hill is in the rather familiar genre where a royal personage (in this case, an American movie star which is much the same thing!) meets a commoner (Hugh runs a travel bookstore in the Notting Hill section of London.). In most other cases, (the Student Prince or Roman Holiday for example), the protagonists are forced by class differences, to separate, but not here. (Perhaps because the real Hugh is famous in his own right.:-)) As a romantic comedy it is quite standard. Boy meets, boy loses, boy gets-repeat ad infinitum. Famous girl meets your obligatory supporting cast of "unforgettable characters" who are friends of the hero and they interact warmly with the famous girl in a not entirely predictable manner.
But Hugh bumbles charmingly, Julia smiles winningly; they are both experts on what they do best. The supporting cast is charming, especially Rhys Ifans as Hugh's roommate Spike, and the lines, often consisting of the usual 4 letter words (a deleted scene included on the DVD shows Julia using the compound word most often used to describe Oedipus Rex. If you don't know what I mean, see the Oedipus scene in Mel Brooks' "History of the World Part 1" are sharp and funny for the most part. And I can appreciate the honesty with which the movie-star personality is treated.
Though the contrived happy ending is pure moonshine, car stunts and all, I think this film has taken its place among the classics of the genre, Sleepless, Harry-Sally etc. all of which have an equally tenuous relationship with reality. Like those other films, this one overcomes reality quite successfully!