sugar coated seriousness

Rating: 8/10 (3 December 2000)

Old Billy Wilder was a very serious guy, God bless 'im. Perhaps you remember his movie about sex and the roles of male and female? No? Well, he sugar-coated it and it was called Some Like It Hot.
Notting Hill has some serious things to say, but it is not going to bore us by stating them seriously. Instead it sugar coats them, for the fun of one and all. But pay attention in the middle of the movie, when Julia Robert's character is complaining about the price of fame, and Hugh Grant's character mentions that 18 months ago his best friend slipped while coming down some stairs, and now will never walk again.
Screenwriter Richard Curtis has taken his experience from the great success of Four Weddings and a Funeral and used it to fuel this movie with wiry and witty comment on all that he experienced. I can hardly wait for his next screenplay, and if it makes use of actors with the charm and chemistry of Roberts and Grant, we'll be in for another treat.