Notting Hill (1999)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  8 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: 'Notting Hill,' truly is one of the ultimate recipes for a great romantic comedy - the captivating romance between two very different individuals that you long to stick, and some genuinely hilarious and properly genius humour on the side. Indeed ever since the brilliant 'Four Weddings and a Funeral,' writer Richard Curtis has arguably become the master of the British rom-com, and this is further testament to that as it's not only extremely witty but it also builds real investment in the central characters to make everything properly engaging and emotional. Now of course there is something automatically poetic about an ordinary man and a famous actress whose differing lifestyles get in the way of their love, but it's the execution that really makes it successful as the actress could have easily come across as a forced and problematic match for the everyman but it instead feels organic and enchanting. That's helped of course by the central performances where Hugh Grant plays his usual kind of character typically brilliantly and where Julia Roberts perfectly portrays her character's vulnerability and longing for connection, and when you couple that with some genius situational tragedies in the story and some properly snappy but ultimately grounded humour, what you've got is another near-perfect rom-com from the great Richard Curtis that almost everyone could genuinely enjoy.
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: It might have been nice to see the couple spend a little more time together than apart so we really got to root for the relationship even more rather than their individual characters' obvious emotional needs.
  VERDICT: A wonderful romantic comedy from the master of the genre, Richard Curtis' 'Notting Hill,' makes its poetic romance engaging and its comedic moments funny. You can't really ask for much more than that can you?

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