Cute, simple, harmless, unchallenging, unremarkable

Rating: 6/10 (21 June 1999)

This film is nice and moderately pleasant. It allows Hugh Grant to act like Hugh Grant (almost intolerable for my liking), and trots out the old boy meets girl, loses girl, gets girl back, routine in a pleasant way for such a well-worn formula. The supporting cast is fairly good but is really only there for cheap laughs or a bit of sympathy. Julia Roberts is tolerable and the situation passingly interesting (every man's fantasy really) but just didn't do much for me. Part of the problem may have been that I'd just been to see 'Life is Beautiful' the evening before and this just pales into insignificance in comparison. Undoubtedly most of the viewing public will enjoy this because it does nothing more than deliver some low-brow chuckles and soppy sentiment - a perfect recipe for success today it seems. In any case, I'd suggest you at least leave it for video. My vote 6/10 (and a dang sight more realistic that the 7.9 or so its currently running at).