Notting Hill (1999)

Running Time: 124 mins
Genre: Romance/Comedy
Estimated Budget: $42, 000,000
Estimated Gross (World Wide & US 2001): $363, 006,080

Director: Roger Michell
Stars: Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant

Can you believe it, Notting Hill is 15 years old this year. It was 1999 that a girl stood in front of a boy and asked him to love her and we are still coming back for more with this classic rom-com. Notting Hill is such a great movie for making the audience laugh and feel good. Richard Curtis is a master at writing great relationships for the screen and this is no different.

Hugh Grant is William Thacker a divorced travel bookshop owner living in Notting Hill. His world is turned upside down one morning when he bumps (literally) into Julia Roberts' Anna Scott, currently the biggest movie star in the world. To his utter surprise Anna sees something in him that she likes and something of a relationship begins. A normal man and a movie star does not seem like a natural and smooth partnership and you would be right. Stumbling and faltering the two try to make things work against all odds.

Notting Hill has long been on the list of favourite romantic comedies of all time. Written by the incomparable Richard Curtis who wrote Hugh Grant's first big screen effort Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) Grant again plays the loveable slightly goofy Englishman, this time the American who he falls in love with happens to be a movie star. And who better to play the biggest star in films but Julia Roberts who was at the time one of the biggest stars on the planet after the likes of Steel Magnolias (1989) and Pretty Woman (1990)  put her on the map. The part she plays in the film is close to how the media focused on her at the time of filming, no doubt this performance was not much of a stretch for her in that respect.

As is Curtis' habit, the script is filled with a great British humour from beginning to end, and believe me this is a funny film. There are so many quotable lines in Notting Hill that are still repeated with joy by fans today. As well as the great humour Richard Curtis blends his screenplays with moving/sad and meaningful scenes. It is this mix which I believe makes his films so successful; he always gets the right balance. Curtis has always had the ability to create wholesome characters with a lot of depth, they are not superficial or surface characters, they are complicated and we plainly witness their faults.

Noticeable from the get-go with Notting Hill is the fantastic co-stars that bring the script to life, in the shape of Rhys Ifans, Tim McInnery, Emma Chambers, Hugh Bonneville and Gina McKee. As Friends and family of Hugh Grant's William. I love that each supporting character has its own story, faults and foibles and you connect with all of them, this is not always the case with films, the support can be lost behind the focus of the stars, but not with Curtis.

This film was extremely successful and has kept it's stars in business every since, the following year Julia Roberts went on to win a Best Actress Oscar for Erin Brockovich (2000) in which she was superb and was nominated in the Supporting category this year for August: Osage County (2014) opposite Meryl Streep. Hugh Grant has continued with what he knows best, though adding edgier performances in the likes of About a Boy (2001)  and completely against type in an array of performances in Cloud Atlas (2012). Richard Curtis added directing to his many talents creating the star filled Christmas classic Love Actually (2003) and last years About Time (2013) with Domhnall Gleeson and Rachel McAdams (one of my absolute favourites of the year, I thoroughly recommend, who doesn't like a bit of time travel) he has only got better with age and experience and I believe he creates some of the most believable and real characters on film.

If you haven't seen Notting Hill, where the heck have you been, it's friday soon and a chilled evening in with a glass of wine and this movie will cure any stressful week you've had. Trust me, give it a try.