Notting Hill

1999 Comedy

Can a beautiful and internationally famous American actress find happiness with a frumpy British bookstore clerk? She can -- at least for a while, it seems -- in Notting Hill. William Thacker (played by Hugh Grant) is a bookseller at a shop in the Notting Hill district in West London, who shares a house with an eccentric Welsh friend, Spike (Rhys Ifans). One day, William is minding the store when in strolls Anna Scott (Julia Roberts), a lovely and well-known actress from the United States who is in London working on a film. She buys a book from William, and she is polite and charming in the way a famous actress would be with a star-struck sales clerk. Their relationship would logically end there, if William didn't run out a few minutes later to buy some juice. While dashing back to the shop, he bumps into Anna on the street, spilling juice all over her blouse. Since he lives nearby, William politely offers to let her stop by his house to clean up; since William seems harmless enough, Anna agrees. When Anna has to stop back to pick up a bag she left at William's house, they kiss -- just in time for Spike to show up. A romance slowly blooms as his friends and family (not to mention the world at large) wonder out loud what he's doing dating a movie star. Notting Hill reunites Hugh Grant with producer Duncan Kenworthy and screenwriter Richard Curtis, who previously worked together on the international hit Four Weddings And A Funeral. more..

Director: Roger Michell

Starring: Julia Roberts, Hugh Grant, Richard McCabe, Rhys Ifans, Emma Chambers

Reviews

  • It comes as a bonus that this romantic comedy is one of the rare pictures of its type that actually is about something -- the double-edged sword of celebrity.

    Bob Graham - The San Francisco Chronicle

    26 April 2013

  • Blithe and exhilarating romantic comedy.

    Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly

    26 April 2013

  • Its deadpan wit, ingenious fairy-tale premise and superbly accomplished cast will leave you feeling positively oxygenated.

    Susan Wloszczyna - USA Today

    26 April 2013

  • It's funny, sympathetic, mostly smart, and it boasts a likable cast of characters led by two performers who have star power and know how to use it.

    - The Chicago Tribune

    26 April 2013

  • The movie is bright, the dialogue has wit and intelligence, and Roberts and Grant are very easy to like. By the end, as much as we're aware of the ancient story machinery groaning away below deck, we're smiling.

    Roger Ebert - The Chicago Sun-Times

    26 April 2013

Awards

  • Top Box Office Films

    ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards (2000)

  • Best Foreign Feature Film (Årets utenlandske kinofilm)

    Amanda Awards, Norway (2000)

     
  • BAFTA Awards (2000)

  • Favorite Actor - Comedy/Romance

    Blockbuster Entertainment Awards (2000)

     
  • Bogey Awards, Germany (1999)