Notting Hill
Date viewed: June 11, 1999
Location: Loews Village VII, Manhattan

Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant made a cute, somewhat-sweet date movie for the summer. Julia stars as mega-movie actress (much like her real life) Anna Scott. Hugh Grant plays a dowdy book store owner whose name has escaped me and it doesn't really matter. Through a series of totally unbelievable circumstances they meet and become smitten with each other.

If you are willing to suspend disbelief, the movie itself is rather sweet. Hugh plays his usual silly, bumbling, mumbling Brit. At first it seems impossible that Julia could find him even slightly intriguing. Ah! Perhaps she secretly craves a life with a simple man instead of the under-the-microscope existence she is used to. Deep, very deep. There is a great scene where Hugh has taken Julia to a dinner party and she tries to top the guest's stories of what a pathetic life each leads. Even though her tale of woe is touching and honest, the guests end up laughing at the troubles of an actress that admits she made 15 million dollars on her last movie.

Following your typical date movie formula, situations are forced and contrived. In one situation, Hugh pretends to be a magazine reporter just to get a chance to talk to Julia again. Even when they meet, he keeps up the façade--and in front of her manager, she plays along. But, why couldn't this famous actress just say she's visiting with a friend? It makes no sense. The formula continues ad nauseam as Julia and Hugh endure misunderstanding and breakup after misunderstanding and break up. I truly felt the movie could have ended at six or seven points.

I will confess to having a tear in my eye a couple of times. There is a beautiful scene set to the country song "When You Say Nothing At All" that really got to me. I felt it worth the ticket price for that one-and-a-half minutes alone.

Listen to me: If you like Julia Roberts; sweet, romantic date movies with happy endings; or British actors with bad teeth in skimpy underwear (not Hugh, his roommate) then I recommend this movie.

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