Notting Hill 的英文影评：
If you liked Four Weddings and a Funeral, then this follow up from writer Richard Curtis is a fantastic romantic comedy. Golden Globe nominated Hugh Grant returns from Four Weddings and a Funeral as William Thacker, an everyday normal unknown guy who works a pretty ordinary job in a travel book shop with Martin (James Dreyfus), and lives in Notting Hill with a curious flatmate named Spike (BAFTA nominated Rhys Ifans). (Oh, he had seen her films before he met her) Then one day the girl of his dreams, American movie star Anna Scott (Golden Globe nominated Julia Roberts, pretty much playing herself) walks into the shop, and they meet a second bumping into each other (and spilling orange juice) in the street. It is this second meeting that leads her to unexpectedly kiss him. A phone call from her is what allows another meeting, and a chance for them to set a date, when she's not busy, at William's younger sister's birthday, His friends, Max (Tim McInnerny) and his wife, disabled sister Bella (Gina McKee), Bernie (Hugh Bonneville), and of course, younger sister Honey (The Vicar of Dibley's Emma Chambers), who is most pleased to meet her. Many of the problems with fame crop up when they are together however, including some bastards (including Sanjeev Bhaskar) in a restaurant talking about her, autograph hunters, celebrity interviews, and for a little while worst of all, a secret boyfriend named Jeff King (Alec Baldwin in a cameo). Eventually though she comes back to his place when some new photos appear in all the newspapers, and she wants to escape the press for a while, this is when they get closer (and finally sleep together). But a little Spike chats to some mates in the pub, the press find her again, and they are apart again, it happens again at a film set for a new film where William overhears her shut him out in a conversation with a co-star. In the end though, after he finds his way into a press conference about the new film, he manages to seal their love, and they have a happy ending with a marriage, and all that comes with it, being a celebrity. Also starring, in order of appearance, Dylan Moran as Rufus the Thief, Mischa Barton as 12-Year-Old Actress, and if you look carefully you'll see Simon Callow as Himself in Film within Film, Omid Djalili as Cashier at Coffee Shop and EastEnders' Michael Higgs as Man at Market. This is not only a great comedy of embarrassing occurrences, involving two great stars, but it is good insight into the life of a celebrity, all that they have to go through in life when they are that famous, tough! It won the BAFTA for the Audience Award, and it was nominated for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film, it won the British Comedy Award for Best Comedy Film, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical. Hugh Grant was number 73, and Julia Roberts number 29 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, Grant was also number 8 on The 50 Greatest British Films, and the film was number 95 on The Ultimate Film. Very good!
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A modern Cinderella tale with English charm and humour, 20 February 2007
9/10
Author: Mark Jauncey (
[email protected]) from London, England
Can lightning strike twice? Well with writer Richard Curtis it has! I understand he wrote this screenplay and completed it before he realised just how similar it was to his previous hit, Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Let's examine this a second: Hugh Grant is the hero; There's an elusive and glamorous American that he falls for; He has a circle of friends, each in their own way a success AND a failure in life, and yet Hugh's character (William Thacker) is somehow trailing them all; there's the kooky yet endearing sister; the character with a tragic disability; a complete buffoon of a sidekick; and several near-misses.
Yet it's all so thoroughly entertaining, AGAIN. It's like a delicious dish, and its recipe for success is cooked up time and again by Curtis as Jamie Oliver's older and wiser brother.
As a single bloke in this day and age I AM William Thacker, and I AM Charles in Four Weddings. So on the one hand you'll have parts of the audience identifying with the hero, and parts of the audience wanting the hero to be their real-life partner. Yet character empathy alone is not enough to carry a film.
The path that the hero follows needs to be a roller-coaster ride. Sometimes it's up, sometimes it's down, but it's never boring. In fact, the pacing is assuredly steady just as, in one excellent scene, we see the indication of time passing in an extremely effective way. I feel that Curtis learnt from Four Weddings and tightened the strings on the time line in this movie. Where Four Weddings very occasionally crawls, Notting Hill paces along assuredly.
In addition, our hero's roller-coaster ride must be believable. Could this really happen? Why not? Do movie stars ALWAYS fall for other celebrities?
So what of the performances? Well Hugh Grant is really Hugh Grant (again) in this role. But isn't that why we go to see Hugh Grant movies? He's funny yet tragic, vulnerable yet assured, and I can't imagine anyone else playing William.
Julia Roberts is one of those stars who, love her or hate her, delivers in every role. She's very believable as Anna Scott, showing the resolute public charm of a movie star, whilst exposing the hidden human frailty behind Hollywood's finest. And this despite the undoubted (and wholly false) criticism that she's simply playing a movie star like she in fact is. She perhaps COULD have leaned back and simply ambled through the movie expecting it to be an easy role for her, but in a truly professional manner, she's sought to add depth and weight to her character.
The rest of the cast sparkle in their roles, most notably Rhys Ifans as Spike. But even without the requisite comedy set pieces that Rhys revels in, actors of class such as Tim McInnerny, James Dreyfus, Gina McKee, Emma Chambers and Hugh Bonneville expertly fill in the no-less important landscape of this joyous and warm piece of art.
Watch out, too, for memorable cameos by Alec Baldwin, Mischa Barton and Matthew Modine.
So who is Cinderella and who is the Prince? At first glance William is the hopeful nobody. But really, as the story develops, we'll see that there are two character's dreams unfolding in Notting Hill.
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