primodanielelori

True, Luca Argentero is the only reason to see this rushed, thoughtless "romantic comedy" I'm sure he's on the verge of something truly important and I, for one, wish him the best. But here, the elements were perfect for an elegant, witty comedy with topical themes and all the rest but, as it is usually the case, there is a lack of real commitment. After a very promising opening with a truly romantic kiss between Argentero and the terrific Filippo Negri, everything is down hill from there. The script needed nurturing and maturing. Claudia Gerini's character is totally unbelievable and that is a problem, a really big problem because it just doesn't let you connect. I won a bet however, I was sure Claudia Gerini was going to disrobe on the first half an hour of the film and I was right. Lovely to look at but dramatically absurd.

Julia Roberts playing a famous American movie star wasn't quite a stretch and yet it felt unconvincing. The humor works the second you're seeing it but then it vanishes into thin air. It feels self conscious and forced. Once all that is said, "Notting Hill" emerges as a pleasant enough improbable romantic comedy in the "Four Weddings And A Funeral" mold without ever reaching the smart, disarming charm of its model. Hugh Grant is lovely in a part destined to seem Hugh Grantish with all the clipped bit of nonsense that have made Grant a household name. The quirky friends and bizarre room mates are the questionable salt and pepper of this romantic tale. I found myself smiling, getting impatient and enjoying it, all at the same time. I'm too much of a Preston Sturgess fan to be able to sit through a modern comedy in the way I did with "The Lady Eve" for instance. My favorite moment: The Horse and Hound sequence. Very funny. If you've never seen a Preston Sturgess, Ernst Lubitch or Billy Wilder comedy, you may like "Notting Hill" much more than I did.

So condescending, to everyone. Washington socialite Gene Tirney comes into the public gallery of Congress escorting two diplomat's wives, the British and the French. She gives the French wife a lesson into the workings of Congress, the French lady doesn't seem to know anything about the American executive branch or understand it. Why didn't the French sue? Or women for that matter. Behind the camera there is a man with a tyrannic brain a misogynistic eye and a very old sensibility, if any. What's fun about this politically incorrect tired tale is precisely the incorrectness, the melodramatic turn and Charles Laughton. Betrayal and conspiracy in the corridors of power has always been a favorite subject from Shakespeare and beyond but here there is a massive problem and I can't decide whether it takes itself too seriously or not seriously enough. See it by yourself and enjoy a terrific Laughton.