I'm also just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.

Rating: 7/10 (13 December 2016)

Stories of class divide are almost always fascinating and will be told for many years to come, mainly because that wondrous, utopic vision of full automation and zero work is still so far away. They've become familiar enough to us to enter the cultural psyche; I'm thinking of time-tested tales like Cinderella and The Prince and the Pauper, with ideals so simple and inspiring that even Disney cartoons can appropriate them. This also means that any movie that wants to tackle the issue is facing an uphill battle. In Notting Hill, we chuckle because of the sheer coincidence of the spilling of the drink, and because we know that little innocuous incident will spark so much more. But we also don't expect it to be that easy for Will and Anna - it wouldn't be a movie if it didn't wait up until the very last minute for the pair to truly realise what they mean to each other.
The true strength of Notting Hill is how it lifts its characters out of these tried and tested archetypes. Roberts has all the makings of a glamorous Hollywood goddess, so we expect her to be a little high-minded, a little dismissive of the residents of Notting Hill, which has charm, but not the glitz of the Boulevard. Yet the movie resists the temptation to establish her as some snotty brat to be humbled by the family, to go through a re-evaluation of her entire life just because of a culture shock. One of the best scenes has her going toe-to-toe with Will's family, in dinner talk that is highly characteristic of British humour and self-depreciation, laced with the right amount of darkness. Anna is tender enough to join in on their game and open up a little about herself, but more importantly she also shares their ability of self-awareness and being able to laugh at herself. She's not merely a high and mighty aspiration for Will to strive for, but put through her own challenges, and though she may have millions, we come to understand that this does not mean her emotions can be easily discarded.
This lovable bunch, reminiscent of another in Curtis' Four Weddings and a Funeral, are immediately likable because they feel like real characters, not merely bits of Will's modest, working class tapestry. They have real lives and struggles outside the window from which we view them through the film's plot, and we can see that they care deeply about each other. They might go wacko when they first meet Anna, a little starstruck as most might be, but also show their fierce loyalty to Will when they realise that he has been hurt and needs emotional support. One of the marvels of the Thacker family is in how their depiction normalises disability - Bella's condition slips into their stories, loves and jokes with ease, and we witness how the others adapt to it. It is accepted as a fact of life rather than something that defines her.
So if anything it might be Will that is the weak link. Try as I might it's difficult to see him being so bogged down by heartbreak and situation. This is, after all, Hugh Grant at his peak, roguishly and lazily handsome, carrying himself with an aloofness and effortlessness about him like the wavy parting in his hair. He even has too goofy sidekicks at both home and work to accentuate his relative sanity. It's a pity that most of the men in Notting Hill are obnoxious, sex- crazed pigs, the most egregious intrusion being Alec Baldwin, who's unshaven and crass, and who all but sneers dismissively at the help before shoving his tongue down Anna's throat. The relationship is defined not by Will's own character, but rather how special and different he may be to all the other male suitors out there. He's modest in dress and tone, shacked up in a bookstore away from all the glamour and gossip of the world, and it is not him but her that initiates the sex instead.
Anna, after all, is looking for that diamond in the rough that won't give her the concessions of a film star but treat her like an ordinary human being with flaws and weaknesses, and it's not an unfair request. Her characters are are exaggerated, over- the-top heroines, and all she wants is someone that realises there is a person behind those portrayals. And along the way we shake and bury our heads in our hands as they navigate the more typical conventions of the genre, and how the story inevitably twists their words and inserts convenient inconveniences to trip them up and try as hard as it can to tear them apart. It isn't immune from the dramatic confrontations and spillings of the heart of the rom-com; in fact it happens twice, and we can understand both perspectives. And the music cues are obvious and cheesy, these days borderlining on self-parody. But aren't they just part of the package? We go into Notting Hill expecting to be comforted and satisfied, and it delivers exactly what we want.