Not Four Weddings

Rating: Null/10 (1 June 1999)

It is, I'm afraid, impossible not to compare this film to 'Four Weddings', since the plot and characters are so similar. Tongue-tied middle class Englishman with group of assorted friends meets American woman, falls in love and spends the whole film in an on-off relationship with her, leading to an all too predictable conclusion. But it is not as good as 'Four Weddings'. There are fewer funny lines and there is none of the pathos added by the funeral in the earlier film. And the friends, who made 'Four Weddings', are nowhere near as good. The lack of such talented comedians as Simon Callow and James Fleet is sorely felt on the comedy front, and Honey is a poor copy of Scarlett. Spike is amusing, but too blatant at times.
Having said that, 'Notting Hill' is a good film and is worth seeing. Julia Roberts, although not one of my favourite actresses, is certainly more appealing than Andie McDowell. I spent most of 'Four Weddings' wondering why the hell Charles didn't go off with Fiona (the beautiful Kristin Scott Thomas), who blatantly adored him, instead of moping around after the vacuous McDowell. In 'Notting Hill' I could actually see why William would go for Anna. There are some very good lines (and some excruciatingly embarrassing moments). The ending is rather overdone. I don't object to the predictable happy ending - this is a romantic comedy after all - but the postscript was unnecessary. And it's actually not true that Notting Hill has been cleansed of its large ethnic minority population for the film - there are plenty of black and Asian people in the street scenes.