page_title: Notting Hill (film)
section_title: Plot
hierarchical_section_title: Notting Hill (film) / Plot
caption_attribution_description: Portobello Road, Notting Hill
context_page_description: Notting Hill is a 1999 romantic comedy film directed by Roger Michell. The screenplay was written by Richard Curtis, author of Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the film was produced by Duncan Kenworthy. The film stars Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Rhys Ifans, Emma Chambers, Tim McInnerny, Gina McKee, and Hugh Bonneville. The story is of a romance between a London book seller played by Grant and a famous American actress played by Roberts, who happens to walk into his shop.
  Released on 21 May 1999, Notting Hill was well received by critics and became the highest-grossing British film of all time. The film won a BAFTA, was nominated in two other categories, and won other awards, including a British Comedy Award and a Brit Award for the soundtrack.
context_section_description: William Thacker owns an independent book store in Notting Hill, London. His wife has recently left him for another man who he thinks looked exactly like Harrison Ford and he has a silly roommate named Spike.  He meets Hollywood actress Anna Scott when she enters the shop incognito. Later, in the street, Will accidentally spills his drink on her, and she goes to his house to change. Upon leaving she impulsively kisses him. She later invites Will to visit her at the Ritz Hotel, but, mistaken for a reporter and ushered into a press junket for Anna's new film, he pretends to interview her and the other cast members as a writer from Horse & Hound magazine. Anna asks to be his date to his sister's birthday party that evening, where she gets on well with Will's friends and sister. They later climb a fence and enter a private neighborhood park, where Anna again kisses Will.
  The next night, they go on a date; at a restaurant they overhear a group of men disparaging Anna because of her screen image. Will walks over and criticizes them, and Anna calmly puts them down. Anna invites Will to her hotel room, but their plans change when he discovers that her movie star boyfriend, of whom he was unaware, has unexpectedly arrived from America to be with her. Will pretends to be a hotel worker in order to avoid detection. Will's friends try to help him get over his disappointment, and over the next six months they set him up on a series of dates, including one with a fruitarian. But he finds it impossible to forget Anna.
  One day, a distraught Anna appears at Will's doorstep, in need of a place to hide from a tabloid scandal. She apologizes for the hotel incident, telling Will that her relationship with her boyfriend is in the past. They enjoy spending time together and discovering their shared interests, including Will's print of Marc Chagall's 1950 painting La Mariée. They sleep together that night, but their bliss is short-lived when the paparazzi, tipped off by Will's housemate Spike, besiege Will's house and get pictures of him, Anna, and Spike half-dressed at the front door. Furious, Anna blames Will for the situation, declares that she regrets their time together, and leaves.
  Seasons pass and Will remains miserable. At a dinner with his friends, he discovers that Anna, by this time an Oscar winner, is back in London making a film. He visits her location shoot, where Anna sees him and invites him past security so that he can watch the filming with the intention of them talking privately afterwards. Despite realizing that the film is a period Henry James rendition (something he had suggested), Will overhears her dismiss him to a co-star, and leaves without further contact. The next day, Anna comes to the bookshop with a wrapped gift, and asks if she can see him again. He tells her what he overhead at the movie set. She explains that she didn't want to discuss her private life with an indiscreet co-star. He accepts this explanation, but rejects her out of fear of being hurt again.
  Will meets his friends and sister in a restaurant with the opened gift: Chagall's original La Mariée ("The Bride"). They act supportively, half-heartedly backing up his decision. Spike, however, declares Will a "daft prick," and Will realizes his mistake. They race across London to Anna's hotel, where they learn that she has checked out and is holding a press conference at the Savoy Hotel. Will arrives to hear Anna's publicist tell the crowd that Anna will be taking a year off and will be leaving the UK that night. Some reporters discuss "Thacker" the guy Anna had been photographed with on her last trip. Anna says they are just friends. Will, again pretending to be a reporter, asks Anna if she'd consider being more than friends with Thacker if he admitted he'd been a "daft prick" and begged her forgiveness. She says she would. After exchanging a few glances with Will, Anna announces that she will be staying in Britain "indefinitely," and the press is abuzz, realizing that Will is actually Anna's love interest. The final scenes show Anna and Will marrying, atte
caption: Much of the filming took place on Portobello Road
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