NOTTING HILL
Tagline: Can the most famous film star in the world fall for just an
ordinary guy?
The Preshow Entertainment was LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN from 1989. This was a show taped in Chicago (I believe he was there a week, which was 4 nights, back then...I think). The audience was pumped, as if they've never seen the outside world. Not a lot of what Dave said could be met without hooping and yelling. Probably 1/6th of the show was applause. Now back then, that may have been an exciting moment for Dave, and possibly for television. But looking back, it's annoying. Even Dave seemed to be losing patience. The whole rhythm of the show was off. Chicagoans love their town, maybe more than any other folk love theirs. That's something I will never understand. People loving their towns to death.
That said, it was indeed an exciting show. The guests were Penn & Teller, Steven Wright, and a woman who worked at NBC for 50 years (longest employee, at that time). P & T did the WaterTank trick, with Dave interrupting as usual (well, it is his show, but still). But it's a wonderful bit and works great on TV.
The feature selected was NOTTING HILL. Now if NOTTING HILL is a chick movie, then I am one swinging chick, which now that I think about it is a possibility. Julia Roberts plays herself- a really popular actress, and Hugh Grant plays himself- a charming, average guy. And as the tagline states: "Can the most famous film star in the world fall for just an ordinary guy?" The answer is yes. Of course it's yes. It's a romantic comedy.
Roberts, who most certainly got paid on a per-smile basis, nails the I-know-who-I-am and-what-people-expect-of-me character perfectly. I may have been joking about the smile remark, but it was part of the charm of her character, the $15 million per picture movie star Anna Scott. She sits back and observes William (Grant), for that's what actors (are supposed to) do. We see her learning curve as she watches him stammer. We actually witness her falling for him. You can nearly do a graph of her feelings about him. William, with his dry and witty wordplay, is a likable yet slightly damaged divorced puppy. She represents every man's fantasy to him, and to her, he is a fresh change from the pomposity of Hollywood and the louts it attracts, depicted here by her coarse boyfriend (Alec Baldwin, also playing himself). William's self-deprecating sarcasm is real and funny, right down to the word he uses when things go wrong- "classic."
There is no shortage of amusing moments in NOTTING HILL. Some in your face, some roll right by for a quick smile (often these are more effective). For example, when William thinks he is meeting Anna at her hotel, he is unaware he is attending her press junket. When he's asked what publication he is representing, lost and vulnerable William sees a magazine on the coffee table and stammers out, "Horse & Hound." He must continue the charade of repping "Horse & Hound" in front of the other media and handlers. His question to Anna regarding her movie? "Any horses in that one? Or hounds for that matter; our readers are intrigued by both species."
Another great moment is the tricky yet brilliant way we learn what Anna is about on the inside. Not voiceover...she tells us. As William's family and friends are crowded around the dinner table, they decide that whoever has the most pathetic life will snag the last brownie. They don't even ask Anna, so she proffers hers. And here, early on, amid a scene of frivolity, we learn the hidden vulnerabilities of this woman, buttoned with a treacle-cutting joke.
Bit players are strewn about perfectly, all there for a reason, and all played spot on. And look for small parts by up-and-comers Mischa Barton and Emily Mortimer.
Even England herself shines. In fact, the damn movie made me homesick for Notting Hill, and I've never even been there.
Writer Richard Curtis (LOVE ACTUALLY, BRIDGET JONES AND SEQUEL) and director Roger Mitchell have crafted a film with a steady and clever tone. Nothing feels forced. Nothing is paced wrong. And nothing's too exaggerated. Even William's nebbishy loser flatmate Spike's (scene-stealer Rhys Ifans) schtick feels well within the borders of normalcy. And there's not a wasted sequence, scene, shot, look, or nod. This film is put together with a keen eye and a soft heart. It even has it's "You had me at hello" moment, which can be deadly if not done right. But it is done right- after all, she really is "just a girl standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her." And if that doesn't set you up for the end of the movie, they throw on Charles Aznavour's "She", performed by Elvis Costello, and hand you a Kleenex with the line "Me, I'll take her laughter and her tears, and make them all my souvenirs, for where she goes I've got to be, the meaning of my life is she."
You men out there, don't let this movie scare you. Perhaps you're a frat boy, or macho macho man, but deep inside each man lurks a William Thacker. NOTTING HILL is a charming movie. It's a funny movie. Or as William might say (but without the sarcasm)- "classic."
Tags: random movie club, notting hill, david letterman
