Engrossing, realistic look at a relationship

Rating: 9/10 (16 May 1999)

Julia Roberts' best film since Pretty Woman. This was a romance that felt like it was real, like it could happen to you, one of those one in a million films that completely engrosses you. Julia Roberts plays a famous movie star who falls for an English shopkeeper (Hugh Grant), and the complicated, up-and-down romance that ensues. This is the first film I ever saw in which the audience clapped through the end credits. Roberts is stunning as the vulnerable and open actress, and Grant is superb as the reserved, bookish man confronted with the love of his dreams. There is just enough English humor to keep the pathos from crushing you, and an ending that leaves everyone satisfied. The direction is great, the Notting Hill / Portabello Road setting is quaintly beautiful. This is _the_ great romance of 1999.