Notting Hill
USA/UK 1999
Reviewed by Charlotte O'Sullivan
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Divorcee William Thacker runs an ailing travel bookshop in Notting Hill, a London neighbourhood. One day a film star, Anna Scott, buys a book from him. Shortly afterwards, they messily collide in the street. William invites Anna back to his house to clean up, where impulsively she kisses him. Some days later, William discovers that Anna has phoned. The couple arrange a date - it's William's sister Honey's birthday, so they all meet at William's friends Bella and Max's house. Afterwards, Anna invites William up to her hotel room but they find Anna's boyfriend there on a surprise visit. William beats a swift retreat.
Salacious shots of Anna appear in the newspapers, and she seeks refuge at William's house where they have sex. The following morning, the press are at the door. Furious, Anna accuses William of setting her up, although it was his flatmate Spike who accidentally tipped off the press. Seasons pass. Filming a Henry James adaptation in London, Anna invites William to meet her on the set. She seems pleased to see him, but William overhears her dismissing him to a fellow actor, so he sidles away. A contrite Anna appears at the bookshop, but William rejects her. Realising his mistake, he chases after her. He arrives at her press conference and declares his love. Some time later, Anna is pregnant with William's child.
Review
Notting Hill is a sly film. Although in many ways it exploits the Four Weddings and a Funeral formula screenwriter Richard Curtis created, it's actually quite a different beast. In Four Weddings, 'vulgar' America is in thrall to cultured, wealthy Britain. But aside from such embarrassing worship, the US barely figures in it (Andie MacDowell's character could have been any nationality). In Notting Hill there's no competition: big, bold, glamorous America is on top; Britain has banana-slipped from importance to impotence. In Four Weddings, Hugh Grant's character knew one of the "sixth richest men in Britain"; here all his friends are financial failures. America is shown to have a clear identity, while Britain is all at sea. Anna is a somebody; William (mistaken first for a journalist, then a room-service cleaner) could be anybody. Such an antagonism can be enjoyable, and the sections of the film that deal with Anna/America's narcissistic prowess are remarkably acute. Grant, meanwhile, makes the most of his role, the perfectly pained martyr to comic calamity.
It's the emphasis on William and Britain's high-brow "crapness" that fails to convince because Notting Hill - a British film, after all - is obsessed with money and success. When Anna gives William a Chagall painting, his friends ask, "Is it the original?" - in other words, is it valuable? Learning it is, they give the relationship the go-ahead. In the film's scheme of things, Henry James is also good because a slice of his classy prose gets Anna an Oscar.
Of course James - that great chronicler of doomed Anglo-American relations - would have been horrified by this film's disingenuous attitude to economics (we never find out where William gets the money to afford such a posh address). Nor would James have understood the presentation of the British as 'innocents'. Each time we're asked to watch William the Non-Conqueror, all we can think is how well his tribe has colonised Notting Hill. That's why the US has to appear so dominant and knowing, the uber-colonial power. Who else could make Willy seem like an underdog? In Four Weddings, we enjoyed cheering on the British rich. Now we have to be tricked into it.
But does Notting Hill really want its cynical project to succeed? We're asked to see William/Britain and Anna/America as polar opposites and yet, on some strange, murky level, we're led to suspect they're the same. When Anna's sexual indiscretions come back to haunt her via the tabloids, it's hard not to remember Grant's own true-life brush with scandal. When she compounds her error by sleeping with him, she says, "Newspapers last forever - I'll regret this forever." This is uncannily significant dialogue. Who would understand this sentiment more than Grant?
The film is also intent on reminding us of the duplicity of actors, not least Anna, who, as her reference to Gilda makes clear, comes from a long line of snaky females. In fact the whole tribe are bad - as we see with Anna on the Henry James set, they're notoriously "indiscreet". But Grant's public image and charm are inextricably tied to his unreliability. In the homage to his personality that was Four Weddings, his character's bitchy indiscretion was intriguingly turned into a virtue. In this film, when asked why his wife left him, he winces and says, "She saw through me." We're meant to see this as marvellous self-deprecation, but it's one of the few lines that rings true. Anna is the official actor in this relationship, but William - an instinctive actor - appears equally untrustworthy.
Viewed in this light, intentional or not, it makes perfect sense that William's proposal is offered (and accepted) in front of hundreds of journalists. For both Anna and William, the media provide a stage and audience. If we're to draw any conclusions from this slight but canny film, it's that the Anglo-American contest is a fake: after centuries of conflict, these two countries are culturally one and the same and really do deserve each other.
Credits
- Producer
- Duncan Kenworthy
- Screenplay
- Richard Curtis
- Director of Photography
- Michael Coulter
- Editor
- Nick Moore
- Production Designer
- Stuart Craig
- Music
- Trevor Jones
- ©PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Inc
- Production Companies
- PolyGram Filmed Entertainment presents in association with Working Title Films a Duncan Kenworthy production from Notting Hill Pictures
- Executive Producers
- Tim Bevan
- Richard Curtis
- Eric Fellner
- Line Producer
- Mary Richards
- Executive in Charge of Production
- Jane Frazer
- Production Co-ordinator
- Simon Fraser
- Location Manager
- Sue Quinn
- Location Unit Managers
- Michael Harm
- Jeremy Johns
- Post-production Supervisor
- Deborah Harding
- Assistant Directors
- Chris Newman
- Bernard Bellew
- Ben Howarth
- Crowd:
- Sue Wood
- Script Supervisor
- Libbie Barr
- Casting
- Mary Selway
- US Consultants:
- David Rubin
- Ronna Kress
- Debra Zane
- ADR Voice:
- Louis Elman
- Script Editor
- Emma Freud
- Translight/Insert Cameraman
- Additional Camerawork:
- Stefan Lange
- Camera Operators
- Mike Roberts
- Additional Camerawork:
- Chris Plevin
- 16mm - Additional Camerawork:
- Paul Otter
- Documentary Cameraman
- Additional Camerawork:
- Michael Eley
- Steadicam Operator
- Additional Camerawork:
- Peter Robertson
- Wescam Operator
- Additional Camerawork:
- John Murzano
- Visual Effects Supervisor
- Tim Webber
- Digital Visual Effects
- Computer Film Company
- Digital Visual Effects Producer:
- Sharon Lark
- Digital Visual Effects Designers:
- Dan Glass
- Paddy Eason
- Paint Artist:
- Alex Payman
- Digital Visual Effects
- FrameStore
- Digital Visual Effects Producer:
- Fiona Walkinshaw
- Digital Visual Effects Designer:
- Pedro Sabrosa
- Special Effects Rain
- Effects Associates
- Special Effects Snow
- Snow Business
- Graphic Artist
- Robert Walker
- Art Directors
- Andrew Ackland-Snow
- David Allday
- Set Decorator
- Stephenie McMillan
- Draughtsmen
- Alan Gilmore
- Peter Dorme
- Scenic Artist
- Brian Bishop
- Costume Designer
- Shuna Harwood
- Wardrobe
- Supervisor:
- John Scott
- Mistress:
- Jane Petrie
- Hair/Make-up
- Design:
- Jenny Shircore
- Artists:
- Norma Webb
- Lizzie Yianni Georgiou
- Titles
- Chris Allies
- Optical Supervisor
- Peter Dansie
- Music Performed by
- The London Symphony Orchestra
- Leader
- Janice Graham
- Conductor
- Geoffrey Alexander
- Synthesizers Performer
- Trevor Jones
- Electric Guitars Arranger/Performer
- Clem Clempson
- Piano Performer
- Dave Arch
- Acoustic Guitar Performer
- Craig Ogden
- Orchestrations
- Trevor Jones
- Geoffrey Alexander
- Julian Kershaw
- Music Co-ordination for CMMP
- Victoria Seale
- Executive in Charge of Music for PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
- Dawn Solér
- Music Editor
- Peter Clarke
- Music Recordists/Mixers
- Simon Rhodes
- Gareth Cousins
- Synthesizers Recordist/Mixer
- Gareth Cousins
- Soundtrack
- "She" by Charles Aznavour, Herbert Kretzmer, performed by [UK/Europe] Elvis Costello, by [rest of world] Charles Aznavour; "Born to Cry" by Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker, Nick Banks, Candida Doyle, Steve Mackey, Mark Webber, performed by Pulp; "Once in a Lifetime" by Gerry McElhone, Sharleen Spiteri, performed by Texas; "Happy Birthday" by Mildred J. Hill, Patty S. Hill; "When You Say Nothing at All" by Paul Overstreet, Don Schlitz, performed by Ronan Keating; "How Can You Mend a Broken Heart" by Barry Gibb, Robin Gibb, performed by Al Green; "Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone" by/performed by Bill Withers; "Blue Moon" by Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart; "You've Got a Way" by Shania Twain, R.J. Lange, performed by Shania Twain; "Turn the Lights Down Low" by Bob Marley, performed by Bob Marley, Lauryn Hill
- Choreography
- Geraldine Stephenson
- Sound Supervisor
- Ian Fuller
- Sound Recordist
- David Stephenson
- Re-recording Mixers
- Robin O'Donoghue
- Dominic Lester
- Dialogue Editor
- Philip Alton
- Effects Editor
- Derek Lomas
- ADR
- Mixer:
- Ed Colyer
- Foley
- Artists:
- Pauline Griffiths
- Paula Boram
- Mixer:
- Ed Colyer
- Editors:
- Nigel Mills
- Grahame Peters
- Stunt Co-ordinator
- Nick Gillard
- Cast
- Julia Roberts
- Anna Scott
- Hugh Grant
- William Thacker
- Hugh Bonneville
- Bernie
- Emma Chambers
- Honey
- James Dreyfus
- Martin
- Rhys Ifans
- Spike
- Tim McInnerny
- Max
- Gina McKee
- Bella
- Richard McCabe
- Tony
- Dylan Moran
- Rufus the thief
- Roger Frost
- annoying customer
- Julian Rhind-Tutt
- 'Time Out' journalist
- Lorelei King
- Anna's publicist
- John Shrapnel
- PR chief
- Clarke Peters
- 'Helix' lead actor
- Arturo Venegas
- foreign actor
- Yolanda Vasquez
- interpreter
- Mischa Barton
- 10 year old actress
- Henry Goodman
- Ritz concierge
- Dorian Lough
- Sanjeev Bhaskar
- Paul Chahidi
- Matthew Whittle
- loud men in restaurant
- Melissa Wilson
- Tessa
- Emma Bernard
- Keziah
- Emily Mortimer
- perfect girl
- Tony Armatrading
- security man
- September Buckley
- 3rd assistant director
- Phillip Manikum
- Harry the sound man
- Sam West
- Anna's co-star
- Dennis Matsuki
- Japanese business man
- Patrick Barlow
- Savoy concierge
- Andy De La Tour
- Maureen Hibbert
- Rupert Proctor
- David Sternberg
- journalists
- Ann Beach
- William's mother
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- PolyGram Filmed Entertainment
- 11,155 feet
- 123 minutes 57 seconds
- Dolby digital/DTS stereo
- In Colour