Notting Hill (film)
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- For places named "Notting Hill", see Notting Hill.
The screenplay was written by Richard Curtis who had previously written Four Weddings and a Funeral. From that highly successful film, actor Hugh Grant, producer Duncan Kenworthy and other film crew members are reunited in Notting Hill. Upon release the movie was heavily criticised by some for presenting an 'ethnically cleansed' vision of West London despite being set in one of London's most diverse and multicultural areas.
Primary cast
- Julia Roberts: Anna Scott
- Hugh Grant: William Thacker
- Richard McCabe: Tony
- Rhys Ifans: Spike
- James Dreyfus: Martin
- Dylan Moran: Rufus the Thief
- Alec Baldwin: Jeff King
- Emma Chambers: Honey
- Tim McInnerny: Max
- Gina McKee: Bella
- Hugh Bonneville: Bernie
Plot
William Thacker (Hugh Grant) is the owner of an independent bookstore which specializes in travel writing in Notting Hill, London. Witty, cultivated and handsome, he has not coped well with his divorce and is currently sharing his house with an eccentric Welsh wannabe artist named Spike (Rhys Ifans).
Thacker encounters world famous Hollywood actress Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) during her trip to London when she enters his shop to buy a book. Shortly thereafter, they accidentally collide in the street, causing William to spill orange juice on both of them. He offers his house (just across the road) as a place for her to get changed. Anna accepts and they retire to his digs.
Right from the start, their love affair seems to be doomed. Although Anna feels at home with his circle of friends, William more and more realises that he is not cut out to be a famous actress's boyfriend. First, he is shocked when he finds out that she has an American boyfriend (played by Alec Baldwin), although Anna asserts that they have broken up. Some time later, after they spent the first night together at William's flat, careless talk by Spike down at the pub results in a throng of reporters at their doorstep trying to take their pictures. She leaves in a hurry, and William decides once and for all to forget her. However, over the months that follow, none of his friends' attempts to find him a girlfriend is successful.
Back in England to make a film, Anna Scott shows up at his bookshop once again, hoping to resume their love affair, but William turns her down. Only after he has rejected her, and she has gone again does William realise that he has just made the biggest mistake of his life. He and his friends search for Anna before she can leave for the United States, and in one of the final scenes, at a press conference, he persuades her to stay in England with him.
The film ends with their wedding and Anna's pregnancy.
Award nominations
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actor - Comedy/Musical (Hugh Grant)
- Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress - Comedy/Musical (Julia Roberts)
Quotes
- Anna Scott: (trying to win the last brownie with the "saddest life" story) "I've been on a diet every day since I was nineteen, which basically means I've been hungry for a decade. I've had a series of not nice boyfriends, one of whom hit me. Ah, and every time I get my heart broken, the newspapers splash it about as though it's entertainment. And it's taken two rather painful operations to get me looking like this."
Honey: "Really?"
Anna Scott: "Really (points to her chin and her nose). And, one day not long from now, my looks will go, they will discover that I can't act, and I will become some sad middle-aged woman who looks a bit like someone who was famous for a while." - Anna Scott: (referring to the Marc Chagall painting La Mariée [link] on William's wall) "Yes - Happiness isn't happiness without a violin playing goat."
- Anna Scott: "Rita Hayworth used to say 'Men go to bed with Gilda, but they wake up with me.'"
William: "Who's Gilda?"
Anna Scott: "Her most famous role. Men went with the dream... they didn't like it when they woke up with reality" - Anna Scott: "The fame thing isn't really real, you know. And don't forget, I...I'm also just a girl...standing in front of a boy...asking him to love her."
- SCOTT OF PANTARTICA - Sun Headline after naked pictures of Anna Scott are found
- William: Oh sod a dog! I've made the wrong decision; haven't I?
Other
The domestic one-sheet poster for Notting Hill was designed by the Tribeca, NYC entertainment advertising agency INDIKA [link].One of the scenes contains a stained glass window with the portraits of Beavis and Butthead.
The soundtrack of the movie features an Elvis Costello cover of the Charles Aznavour song "She" [link].
External links
- [}}}] at Rotten Tomatoes
- [}}}] at Box Office Mojo
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