Surreal, but nice!

Rating: 8/10 (15 February 2019)

Notting Hill is a romantic comedy or rom-com from 1999 made by a successful production company (Working Title) and written by an equally successful screenwriter of the time, Richard Curtis.
The team had been behind another successful rom-com of the 1990s, Four Weddings And A Funeral.
It is as the title unoriginally suggests set in the Notting Hill area of London. An affluent area some would say yet at the same time home of immigrants and the annual carnival. It is also the home of a bustling market. I digress!
Back to the film. Anyway, Hugh Grant plays a travel book shop owner William Thacker who lives within walking distance of his shop conveniently. A shop that isn't particularly financially successful.
Grant has a couple of failed marriages to his name and lives in a terraced house with a rather scruffy, yet likeable Welsh lodger Spike (Rhys Ifans).
The film has all the traits of the rom-com film at hand. You could say it is split into three distinct acts:
1. Boy Meets Girl
2. Boy loses girl
3. Boy wins her back and everybody lives happily ever after!
The boy in question is really a man, Thacker! Although Grant plays Thacker with his usual rather tedious surreal but nice attitude. He's done it in several of his films before and after.
The girl, or lady is successful Hollywood actress Anna Scott played by Julia Roberts.
Now the meet-cute scene is classic rom-com staple. Scott is in London and happens to browse the bookshelves of Thacker's book shop. Although his initial attempts at link-selling leave a lot to be desired!
All I can explain about the scene is surreal but nice!
Grant struggles against the media frenzy that follows Scott and her movie enterouge, at one point pretending to be from Horse and Hound magazine!
Thacker introduces Scott to his wacky relatives/friends at dinner. The supporting cast here includes the likes of Hugh Bonneville.
Now there are obstacles to the relationship developing. Not least the fame and 'adulation' that follows Scott at every turn. The media frenzy and tabloid revelations about old videos.
The obstacles also come in the form of a supposed relationship with a fellow actor, cue a cameo by Alec Baldwin.
Scott seemingly has little independance but shows Thacker a good time. In one scene breaking into a Notting Hill square garden over locked railings whilst Thacker struggles ala Alan Partridge!
The casting is a high point of the film. Grant is a regular at these roles throughout his career and Roberts probably had her most successful role to date in Pretty Woman.
Rather than a gay best friend, Thacker confides his concerns to his relatives/friends including Ifans who is funny as Spike.
Now Thacker loses Scott whilst she faces her media demons and cross Atlantic way of life.
Cue a musical montage scene where Grant walks through the Notting Hill market to his shop through several changing seasons to depict the passage of time. For the musical geeks out there the track in question is Ain't No Sunshine by Bill Withers.
The soundtrack also features some brothers Gibb input and Ronan Keating.
Thacker faces his moment of despair around the 3/4 point of the movie toward the end of the second act.
The final act sees Grant racing through London traffic aided by his friends to reach Scdott's latest press conference at the Savoy Hotel. Horse and Hound is back!
The inevitable outpouring of love occurs and Thacker and Scott appear to live happily ever after!