Not bad but too long

Rating: 7/10 (29 January 2014)

I love screenwriter Richard Curtis's affectionate way of creating characters, and his witty scripts. Julia Roberts gets good directing support here, and puts in her best role since My Best Friend's Wedding. Unlike that movie, when her character was quite dark, here she is very much playing herself -- a rich movie star on vacation, albeit a bit down in the dumps at first. She must have found it interesting virtually playing someone in her own real life world -- doing press interviews, dodging the paparazzi, trying to have a personal life and making wry comments about plastic surgery and obnoxious co-stars. Curtis puts in interesting lines for her (and presumably Roberts didn't object) for her character, such as wryly stating she's earning $15 million for one film, which is very bold, but quite accurate for someone like Roberts. Hugh Grant plays Hugh Grant, but hey, it is quite an attractive character, and he is believable as a book shop owner. As usual for Curtis, the supporting cast are not just bland faces -- they're real characters with their own good and bad points. However Curtis does tend to make them all a bit too lovable and winsome and kooky. But it is a comedy. I loved Grant's flatmate, the skinny Welsh eccentric. All in all, a very likable film. The big complaint I had was, it was too long. It was 'boy gets girl, then loses, then wins, then loses...' when it should have wound up in half the time.