Thank God for a Welsh man. I never thought I
would say that!
If you are a
lass, you will probably
see the film anyway. Read no further. If you
are a
lad bear in mind you can
trade it in with your wife/girlfriend in exchange
for forcing her to sit through
Star
Wars Episode One 'The Phantom Menace'. (Advanced
Hollywood Movie mathematics for couples dictates
that one slushy "RomCom" = one empty Sci-fi
blockbuster).
Plot: Hugh Grant falls for Julia Roberts
who plays a Hollywood movie actress. Will he
get the gal?
Review: Notting Hill is
Four Weddings and a Funeral minus those irksome
weddings and maudlin funeral. And much the better
for it if you ask me.
In both films floppy fop Mr Hugh Grant falls
for an American woman. In both cases the film
seems to fall apart when the American Actress
appears in it. Suddenly one is jolted out of
ones suspended disbelief. The American lady
seems so out of place that she seems to stick
out of the screen like those adverts where everything
is black and white apart from one person/object.
Andy McDowell in 'Four Weddings' made Marvin
the Paranoid Android seem like a well rounded
and human character.
Julia Roberts faired better than Ms McDowell.
At first I enjoyed the fascination of watching
her struggle vainly with the material. Then
he began to sympathise with her because she
was obviously not unskilful under the circumstances.
Her impossible task was to persuade us to root
for her incredibly unsympathetic character.
I gained the feeling Roberts had been stitched
up by the scriptwriters. After all, who cares
about the fate of an insanely rich and spoiled
movie star?
The American leading lady of both Four Weddings
and Notting Hill was these films' greatest strength
and greatest weakness. The strength was to improve
the prospects of large profits, helping the
films to be made in the first place. The weakness
was to taint the film.
Notting Hill was only lifted above mediocrity
when a marvellous comedy Welshman (Rhys Ifans)
pitched up on the screen.
This review sounds patriotic, but that is definitely
not the my intention. It is just that Hollywood
actors (with the exception of a talented few
like Gwyneth Paltrow) do not mix happily with
British cinema. Sadly, American and British
actors, when thrown together, often spawn a
strange mutant offspring on screen. It's like
seeing a whale swimming on the moon, one senses
one is watching a special effect.
See also
Bridget
Jones's Diary, a far superior move by the
same team that features a mind-blowingly fine
performance by an American actress.
Kristin
Scott-Thomas walks in at the end and Grant sweeps
her off her feet, which is exactly what he should
have done in Four Weddings. - Or
- Ms Roberts sulks whist sporting a dodgy white
dress the day after her foppy love has been
caught enjoying the favours of a lady of the
night.
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