Within the sub-genre of romantic comedies, there is another layer. Throughout the late 90s and early 2000s, Hugh Grant dominated as the affable, always loveable lead in various romantic comedies. Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually seem to be the trio that are remembered most fondly by fans of film. He jauntily thrust himself from screen to screen, wooing the leading lady in scenes of bumbling charisma. Grant is a great performer, iconic on British screens for churning out so many incredibly iconic performances, but Notting Hill is just a tad drab.
No charm is lost by Grant, who turns in another exceptional performance. Seeing him in later years under supporting parts in The Gentlemen and Paddington 2 has been an exceptional return to form. Trading in his sly narrative devices found in the Ritchie gangster flick, he plays the dough eyed hero of Notting Hill tremendously well. I’d expected nothing less, though, he has a feverish charm and the characters he brought to life around this period of time were interchangeable from film to film. William Thacker could be replaced with Charles from Four Weddings and a Funeral, who in turn could be replicated by Will from About a Boy. There’s no real difference between a large portion of his performances throughout these films, they’re consistently enjoyable. It all comes down to the supporting cast to take up the slack.
In this instance, they do so with relative success. Julia Roberts provides a solid other half to Thacker with her role as Anna Scott. Rhys Ifans is an interesting accompaniment to this mixture, providing us the comic relief of the supporting archetype, a character you’ll find present in just about every British romantic comedy. It’s all very run of the mill, typical and rather expressionless in managing to get the job done. Hugh Bonneville, Gina McKee and Tim McInnerny play the loving friends that want to do their best for Grant’s blue-eyed, loveable caricature. It’d be a lot better if they didn’t feel like they’d been shoehorned into the film, a support network for our leading character solely there because that’s what every other film at the time would expect.
Notting Hill’s greatest issue is that it feels extremely predictable. Releasing in a period of time where the predictability of the genre had settled in well with audiences, Grant and Roberts muster enough chemistry out of one another to make it work for a credible first hour of the film. From there though, it’s clear that Notting Hill is losing steam, running out of ideas fast and throwing in the same tropes and twists they had relied on already. In some cases, the “will they, won’t they” narrative technique is utilised dangerously close to one another, each other scene in the final third of the film seemingly relying on this one angle and nothing more.
A sad shame, because for that first hour I was feeling blissfully ignorant of the stereotypical approach Notting Hill has to the genre. Harmless fun, a cosy film that isn’t all that good on the whole, but many will find safety within that net of predictable characterisations and harmless filmmaking. There are certainly better Grant led films available, especially in this genre, but for all its downfalls, I can’t help admire just how formularized yet charming the whole film is.
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