(Geez, that one was lousy, even by the standards of these necks o’ the woods… :P )

So, I finally got around to watching “Notting Hill“, one of the most famous romantic comedies of the last decade. (Or so I presume, anyway, I’m not much of an authority on the popularity or quality of romantic comedies. Or any kinds of films, for that matter.)

And I liked it quite well, actually. Which was something of a surprise, because I’m generally speaking very sceptical to films in which Julia Roberts has one of the leading roles. And of course, she wasn’t exactly the best one I’d seen in this one either, but that could just be a consequence of me not liking her character. (I often do that, you know. :P )

The film was quite funny, and I almost fell in love with the dialogue. Sure, Hugh Grant played the same role he’s done in almost everything else I’ve seen him in (at least “Four Weddings And A Funeral” — where he also, now that I come to think of it, acts against one of my least favourite American actresses ), but at least that means he actually knows that part, and so he’s able to do it quite properly. Oh, and the dialogue. Well, Hugh Grant is able to preform it with his usual charm, and so are the rest of the crew. I mean, even Julia Roberts manages to say her lines in a way that can be amusing at times.

So. I’ve established that I found the film to be horribly funny. What else? Well, for one thing, William’s “sidekicks” (aka. friends; I’ve read too many superhero comics lately :P ) were quite brilliantly done. Even though many of them were given a minimum of screentime, they were all able to make an impression of sorts. And a sympathetic one, at that. Well, maybe with the exception of Spike. But then again, he was cool, too.

On top of all of this fun stuff, was there anything else? Well, of course there bloody well was! Because if you look really close (or not), you can actually discover some more serious stuff, too. Obviously, the film takes a critical stance against the way a lot of newspapers and other parts of the media abuses the private lives of celebrities. But this rather narrow criticism is also expanded to include the public’s apparent interest for these kinds of “news”, by William calling them “nothing” and stuff like that. Simple? Perhaps, but even the fact that they touch a topic such as this one is refreshing. After all, few romantic comedies has any kind of social criticism in them at all…

So, what’s my final judgement? Well, I think I’m actually gonna go for a 7.5/10. It’s about 1.2 more than its average at Imdb, but I thought it was quite an amusing little thing. Obviously not “Love Actually“, but few romantic comedies are.