Nothing Brill

Rating: Null/10 (13 April 1999)

Julia Roberts is a lot better than Andie McDowell in Four Weddings, but that's not a recommendation. Notting Hill is a pretty cynical rerun of Four Weddings: Hugh Grant's circle is the same (his sister is identical to Scarlett, and has the same storyline; it is his ex-girlfriend rather than his brother who has a disability...). There are some funny moments, but it adds up to very little.
She loves him because he is ordinary -- as ordinary as someone with a business and house on prime £1m real estate in West London can be -- and can give her the private life she craves. Then where does he declare this love? At a press conference. Roberts' character would have hated that.
The district of Notting Hill has been severely ethnically cleansed too. It is sad that the film has been made to appeal to a fictional American view of London: white, waspy, funky but aristocratic. Certainly no one seems to have a job that can fund their lifestyle.
It also bothered me that there were bits of script that were US English, not UK English. Grant says "anyways" at one point.
Anyways, that's enough from me.