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Anna is a famous actress who makes (concidentially or not) 15 million dollars a film. Always surrounded by nosy reporters, she goes to London to promote her most recent film. One day, she goes to Notting Hill and enters in a bookstore owned by William (Hugh Grant) a man who had just gone through a divorce and whose room mate is a Welsh who apparentely, makes a living doing strange performances on the city streets. Although he recognized immeadetely the actress, William, with typical British discretion, behaves like she's just another costumer, which pleases her a lot. Moments later, the two meet again when he, by chance, spills orange juice on the clothes of the star and convinces her to go to his apartment to change clothes. From then on, begins a complicated romance, as they both live in completely different realities.
Clichés, clichés, clichés. Notting Hill is full of them, from the 'convenient' second encounter of the two (is there anything more common-ground than the old scene where thr good guy spills something on the clothes of the good girl?) to the scene where the film ends (again, I won't spoil it). But the fact is that those things doesn't bother at all. Actually, this is one of those stories that everyone knows how it is going to end, but it's fun to see how things are going to get there.
The script, written by Richard Curtis, reuses a lot of the elements of another of his work, Four Weddings and a Funeral. All of Hugh Grant's strange friends are there, and that's not all, Curtis also seems to reuse whole scenes, like the one which all squeeze inside a car and another one that William gets all his friends together to give advices to one another. Still, this 'lack of originality' doesn't bother either, the film can get good laughs.
Hugh Grant, as the insecure bookstore owner does the same job that he did on 'Four Weddings'. But let's be fair, the actor is equally fun and captivating in his so very typical British way. And his chemistry with Julia Roberts is essential for the film to work, we (the spectators) really hope that they end up together. And also Rhys Ifans, who plays the repulsive yet funny room mate Spike, has many of the best moments of the story.
Roger Michell's direction, is quite irregular though, becoming unbearably slow and predictable in some occasions. A great example is the scene where William loses his glasses just before going to the cinema with Anna. When he's leaving, Spike asks him if he found them, and he answers "kind of". Next, the camera slides through the interior of the theater for way too long, giving us enough time to predict the upcoming joke. On the other hand, there's a wonderful sequence where William walks through the streets of Notting Hill as we see time going by: fall, winter, spring and summer. The most incredible is that Michell does that in practically one cut.
The soundtrack is hand picked, giving the proper pace to the film, either it is a happy or a sad moment.
The fact is that this romantic comedy does its deed, the main couple has a beautiful, funny, difficult and believable love story, as laughs are strategically placed throughout the plot. For a film whose flaws and virtues are simply balanced, the final result is above average.
7/10
