Stars: Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Hugh Bonneville, Emma Chambers, James Dreyfus, Tim McInnerny, Gina McKee, Rhys Ifans, Rhys Ifans

Director: Roger Michell

Summary: A famous actress in disguise in London runs into a divorced bookstore owner. They strike up a friendship with each other as they each find something that was previously missing from their own lives.

Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant forge memorable chemistry in this charmer about William, an unassuming bookstore owner in London's Notting Hill section and Anna, a Hollywood actress who, against the odds, are able to fall in love. After Anna wanders into William's shop while filming on location in London, the two share an instant attraction and find themselves attempting to forge a normal relationship despite Anna's megawatt star power. Screenwriter Richard Curtis (FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL) has crafted a traditional romantic comedy which is surprisingly frank in it's depiction of the lives of the rich and famous and the price they pay for success.

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They don't really make many romantic comedies like Notting Hillanymore--blissfully romantic, sincerely sweet, and not grounded in any reality whatsoever. Pure fairy tale, and with a huge debt to Roman Holiday, Notting Hillponders what would happen if a beautiful, world-famous person were to suddenly drop into your life unannounced and promptly fall in love with you. That's the crux of the situation for William Thacker (Hugh Grant), who owns a travel bookshop in London's fashionable Notting Hill district. Hopelessly ordinary (well, as ordinary as you can be when you're Hugh Grant), William is going about his life when renowned movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) walks into his bookstore and into his heart. After another contrived meeting involving spilled orange juice, William and Anna share a spontaneous kiss (big suspension of disbelief required here), and soon both are smitten. The question is, of course, can William and Anna reconcile his decidedly commonplace bookseller existence and her lifestyle as a jet-setting, paparazzi-stalked celebrity? (Take a wild guess at the answer.) Smartly scripted by Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) and directed by Roger Michell (Persuasion), Notting Hillis hardly realistic, but as wish fulfilment and a romantic comedy, it's irresistible. True, Roberts doesn't really have to stretch very far to play a big-time actress who makes $15 million per movie, but she's more winning and relaxed than she's been in years, and Grant is sweetly understated as a man blindsided by love. Together, in moments of quiet, they're a charming couple, and you can feel her craving for real love and his awe and amazement at the wonderful person for whom he has fallen. The only blight on the film is its overbearing pop soundtrack, though Elvis Costello's heart-wrenching version of "She" gets poignant exposure. With Rhys Ifans as Grant's scene-stealing, slovenly housemate and Alec Baldwin in a sly, perfectly cast cameo. --Mark Englehart

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Theatrical Trailer, Interactive Moving Menus, Notting Hill Travel Guide, Cast And Film Makers Biographies, Film Highlights, Production Note Screens
Subtitles:	Dutch
Year:	1999
Release Date:	November 15, 1999
Runtime:	119 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	059 760 2
Keywords:	Hill, Comedy, General, Wide, Screen, Notting, Romantic
Genre:	Comedy