NOTTING HILL: Blu-ray re-issue (Universal/Polygram/Working Title, 1999) Universal Home Video
Can a lonely book seller find true happiness with a
goddess of the American movie screen? Director, Roger Michell attempts to
illustrate the pleasures as well as the pitfalls of just such an Anglo-American
alliance in Notting Hill (1999), an utterly charming, astutely adult
romantic comedy costarring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant – two of the most
congenial ‘feel good’ stars to ever appear in such light-hearted fare. Like most
every rom/com of the past 40-years, Notting Hill’s plot is frequently interrupted
by its pop tune-driven soundtrack, director Michell choosing to bridge certain
elements in montage to expedite his storytelling while the likes of Al Green,
Elvis Costello and Trevor Jones – among others – set the tone and mood for the
moment. It’s a clumsy device at best. Yet, in retrospect, Notting Hill
is one of the last truly engaging gems of its generation, our present compost
having eroded the genre to crude, crass and fairly tasteless bathroom humor
without a shred of socially redeeming value. To be sure, Notting Hill
tests the boundaries of saucy English farce, particularly in the character of
the sidekick, Spike (Rhys Ifans, as a tantalizing mixture of daft perversity
meets total social ineptitude), a wholly endearing simpleton out of his depth,
romantically speaking.
The crux of Notting Hill is not about getting
the laugh – ironically, exactly the reason the film gets them with mounting
regularity as Richard Curtis’ screenplay introduces us to one dizzy dame and
lumbering Neanderthal after another, the wit as dry as a martini, but with
little jabs of pleasure deriving from what we already know about Julia Robert’s
commitment-shy mega-star, Anna Scott, destined to find lasting contentment
beyond the footlights with Hugh Grant’s ill-spoken/utterly awkward travel
bookshop owner, William Thacker. Notting
Hill excels – at least in part – because its stars are genuine. And that is
saying quite a lot, especially for Hugh Grant who, in 1995, all but tanked his
Teflon-coated image as the squeaky clean and amiable fop by getting busted for
trying to pick up Hollywood hooker, Divine Brown. On this outing, however,
Grant’s out with another ‘pretty woman’ – the divine Ms. Roberts, whose
career choices beginning in the late-eighties, through to the late nineties,
made her one of the most beloved superstars to grace our movie screens. We have
seen both play these parts before: Roberts, in any number of frothy romantic
comedies with the nimblest of plots, and Grant – coming down from his real life
sexual faux pas – a miscalculation his floppy-haired Charles in Four
Weddings and a Funeral (1994) would have done with less folly, but infinitely
more buffoonish finesse.
Notting Hill is Richard Curtis’ brainchild, conceived from a
restless night’s tossing and turning, the concept of a quote ‘normal’
person falling in love with an ‘unattainable’ of this world hardly
revolutionary. In fact, the film is rather liberally bathed in shades of the
Cinderella fable, albeit – in reverse, and tempered by the very bumpy course to
true love. On this outing the impediments are not external, but rather, to be
found in the roadblocks deliberately set up by our two principals – each,
arguably, wounded and cautious about the direction of their burgeoning
relationship. Anna Scott isn’t a bad egg. She isn’t even a gadabout – at least,
not the kind Hollywood is used to presenting or even celebrating in the
tabloids. No, Anna knows what the world thinks of her, the double-edged sword
of fame resting squarely on her slender shoulders. She’d like to fall in love.
But she is just not certain love – or anything even remotely like it – is
possible. The fiction of her public image has expunged the reality of the
private girl lurking beneath.
Grant’s William Thacker has his own concerns –
starting with the social acceptance of his friends, and, dotty sister, Honey
(Emma Chambers) whose introduction to Anna is “holy f_ck!” Chambers left
us much too soon when, in 2018, she suffered a fatal heart attack, age 53. There
is also William’s flat mate, Spike – who thinks that a way to a woman’s heart
is by wearing a T-shirt that reads “You’re the most beautiful woman in the
world…fancy a f_ck?” Will’s best
friends, marrieds Bella (Gina McKee) and Max (Tim McInnerny), although
encouraging, are weary about the longevity of such a relationship, worried Anna’s
worldly fame will devour the relative obscurity Will presently enjoys. And then
there is number cruncher, Bernie (Hugh Bonneville…yes, Downton Abbey’s
Lord Grantham no less) – obtuse, oblivious and utterly charming. He doesn’t
even know who Anna Scott is! In the cast too are James Dryfus as Will’s neurotic
employee, Martin, and, the marvelous Ann Beach as Will’s understanding, but
inquisitive mum. Aside: in a real ‘hoot’ of a scene, regrettably cut from the
movie for time-concision, Will giddily attempts to break the news to his
parents he is dating somebody famous, to which Beach’s reserved matriarch
observes, “Not Fergie?” Mercifully,
this scene survives in outtakes included on the home video release of Notting
Hill.
Director, Michell might have wound up with artistic
gumbo on his hands, except he deftly navigates his way through this
carnival-esque mélange of twits and misfits, naturalizing his characters to the
absurdities in the plot while acclimatizing the audience to each of them with a
perfectly pitched home run into our hearts. If Notting Hill were only a
‘cute romantic comedy’ it would already have a lot going for it. But
Curtis’ screenplay also goes a little deeper behind the velvet curtain of
stardom and Anna’s unromantic viewpoint about the position she currently holds in
the cinema firmament. “The fame thing isn’t real,” she explains to
William, “I’m just a girl standing before a guy asking him to love her.” It’s an astute observation, one Julia Roberts
emphasizes with great sincerity, perhaps reflecting a bit on her own popularity
– at its zenith in 1999, but to have derailed several attempts at ever-lasting
happiness beyond the footlights and pall of public scrutiny. Julia Roberts is
undeniably one of the last ‘stars’ to emerge from the tail end of the 20th
century, her doe-like, sensitive eyes and garage door-sized mouth and lips
poetically expressive. Roberts’ great gift has always been her ability to
extract our empathy for the characters she inhabits. While her harshest critics
have often suggested Roberts is merely doing a pantomime of who she is – rather
than acting - you cannot fake this sort of sincerity which Roberts possesses in
spades. Moreover, she knows damn well how to bottle and market it into popcorn
gold at the box office. Roberts’ first movie, Mystic Pizza (1988) gave
us two sides to the woman we would later come to know. Since then, the actress –
at least on the screen – gives every indication of being a rewarding individual
to be around in life, and, it is for this intangible hallmark of self-awareness
that we can buy into Roberts as an infectiously sensitive screen presence
whenever she appears.
Interestingly, Hugh Grant’s William Thacker isn’t
really the right type for Roberts’ forthright Anna – too soft-featured and
effetely cute, lacking the spark of masculine ruggedness referenced in Roberts’
other leading men - even Richard Gere’s smooth-shaven but utterly ruthless
corporate raider in Pretty Woman (1990). Yet, Grant makes ‘awkward’ work
– perhaps, because like Roberts, his strengths play to the proverbial fish out
of water, unbelievably clumsy, demure and struggling half-intelligently to
genuinely express himself to the woman he so clearly loves. Like Roberts, Grant
can play the poor old sap with whom we cannot but empathize and this makes him
lovable in spite of himself. If there is something of an absence of the
essential romantic spark between these two film favs, then there is also a
complete lack of arrogance or subterfuge to provide the perfect antidote.
Following Grant’s real-life incarceration, his on-screen characters began to
acquire a transparency of quiet, but sullen bitterness, the congenial fop
downgraded to disreputable rogue played up and exploited in Bridget Jones’
Diary (2001). But Notting Hill still casts Grant as everybody’s
favorite innocent – a man in love with genuine concerns he’ll ruin the one good
thing going for him even with the best of intentions. Even more impressively, Grant almost makes us
forget and forgive him for ditching his super-model/gal pal, Elizabeth Hurley
for a little badinage on the side with a seedy street-walker.
Evidently, screenwriter, Richard Curtis’ decision to
place his story in Notting Hill – London’s most joyously eclectic and
colorful sector, where one could just as easily run into a gaggle of buskers as
the future Princess of Wales out for a stroll, helps to add plausibility to the
plot. It also created minor headaches for production manager, Sue Quinn and
designer, Stuart Craig; London’s police, helping to maintain order amidst the
chaos of filming all over the city without the luxury of being able to
officially close down and seal off the streets to accommodate the production
unit. Only Michell’s request for shooting in Leister Square was denied, owing
to a prior incident during the premiere of a Leonardo Di Caprio movie.
Otherwise, he moved from Portobello Road to the Ritz, Savoy and Hempel hotels,
and finally, Nobu Restaurant for a pivotal scene where Anna confronts a table
of loud-mouth men who are all too eager to crudely fantasize about a night in
her boudoir. Yet, the verisimilitude augmented by thousands of onlookers and
the paparazzi lurking about the peripheries of each shot not only seems right
in keeping with the popularity of the movie’s real-life stars, but also fitting
for the character of Anna Scott. She skulks in dark sunglasses and a sporty
black beret, darting into William’s travel book shop on an impromptu whim to
escape her pampered/sheltered life in between work and studio PR junkets. And
Will is the perfect guy for Anna at this moment – unassuming and frankly
anesthetized by his first glimpse of this larger-than-life fantasy creature he
has only been able to admire from afar, but who now stands five-feet-seven-inches
tall at his front desk.
Notting Hill opens with an
extended montage under its main titles set to the tune of Elvis Costello’s
rather anemic rendition of an old Charles Aznavour song, ‘She’. We see
Anna Scott – world famous star adored by millions, besought by the public and
the press, the drama and the spectacle of what most laymen imagine the precepts
of stardom in totem to be, are succinctly summarized under the main titles.
It’s a perfect picture…maybe, with Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) – star, then
center of the universe! All of London is frankly agog and abuzz with the news
Anna is about to begin shooting her latest movie in England. But for one fan,
independent bookseller William Thacker, Anna’s arrival is about to take on very
special meaning. Will’s an introspective divorcee. He has about as much chance
of meeting Anna Scott in the flesh as in convincing his uninhibited Welsh flat
mate, Spike that the way to a real woman’s heart is through genuine heartfelt
sentiment. But kismet is on Will’s side. For Anna does indeed find her way to
his cluttered little shop in Notting Hill. It’s a ‘cute meet’ of a kind
– she, quietly pretending to be somebody else at first/ he, accidentally
spilling orange juice all over her, then offering to help clean up the mess inside
his nearby apartment. Her belligerence
gives way to coy gratitude and his remuneration gets sealed with a kiss – the
start of an awkward affair, destined for better things. Too bad for William,
Spike has the I.Q. of a dead flashlight battery. He forgets to pass along a message from Anna
until it is almost too late, indicating she is at the Ritz under the name
‘Flintstone’ and holding press interviews for her new sci-fi movie - Helix.
Will arrives and is let in by Anna’s agent under the pretext he is a journalist
for ‘Horse & Hound’ magazine. Naturally, the ‘interview’ goes badly.
Nevertheless, Will is elated when Anna offers to
cancel a previous engagement to be his date at Max and Bella’s house for a
surprise birthday celebration for his sister, Honey. No one really believes
Will when he says he is bringing Anna Scott to the party. And no one is more
startled by Anna’s sudden appearance than Honey who nearly wets herself at the
first sight of her favorite movie star in the flesh. To everyone’s surprise, Anna fits right in
with Will’s friends. Afterwards Will and Anna share embarrassing childhood
stories, the pair breaking into a private London square where they talk some
more and gradually fall in love. It all seems to be working much too smoothly
for Will – his skepticism heightened, and later confirmed, when he learns Anna’s
American boyfriend, Jeff King (Alec Baldwin) has flown in for a quick conjugal
stopover at the Ritz. Will crashes the moment, pretending to be room service,
and Anna later reveals her relationship with Jeff is at an end. Time passes.
Then, one day, six months later, Anna arrives at Will’s home unannounced,
pleading for a place to hide out from the press while a scandal involving some
‘cheesecake’ photos taken back in her college days blows over. Will is
sympathetic and discovers, to his delight, Anna’s feelings for him have only
intensified since their time apart. The couple makes love. Alas, their moment
of post-coital serenity is shattered when the press lays siege on Will’s home at
dawn with a barrage of questions involving their affair. Believing Will has
betrayed her, Anna darts out the back way. Disillusioned, Will attempts once
more to forget her.
Time passes again. Anna returns to England to begin
work on a new Henry James’ movie. Earlier, Will had suggested Anna broaden her
acting range. To him, her acceptance of the Henry James movie suggests he is
more of an influence and a part of her life than ever. But this bubble gets
burst when Will inadvertently overhears Anna on a microphone between takes,
talking with another actor (Samuel West) about Will as someone she just knows
from her past. Will is despondent and leaves the set immediately. When Anna
confronts Will, explaining the co-star is a notorious gossip, he graciously listens
to her, but then turns down her proposal of marriage, explaining he could not
survive being rejected by her again. Dejected, Anna leaves the bookshop and
Will heads off to meet his friends at a nearby pub. Everyone is supportive
except for Spike who admonishes Will for being a ‘daft prick’. Realizing
life without Anna is none at all, Will gets Max, Bella, Honey and Bernie to
drive him to the Savoy where Anna is holding her farewell press conference
before heading back to Hollywood. Will confesses his undying love under the
guise of being just another reporter. Publicly, he apologizes and then
proposes. The room erupts in flashbulbs and questions being shouted as Elvis
Costello’s reprise of ‘She’ leads into a closing montage of clips to
illustrate Anna’s retirement from the movies as she and Will are expecting
their first child.
Notting Hill is a fairy tale for the post-modern age, the
Cinderella fable brought into line with contempo standards, but with its oft’
resurrected theme of commoner meets (Hollywood) royalty predictably concluding
on the proverbial ‘happy ending’. Love,
impenetrable and enduring through time and hardship is the most frequently
resurrected commodity in movies because it never fails to click with an
audience. Guaranteed box office is a numbers game and romance, at least in
1999, definitely sold tickets. Moreover, director, Roger Michell knows how to
manipulate his stars and scenarios for maximum ‘feel good’. From its first
frame to the last, Notting Hill finds a place in our hearts, not so much
because it seems new or even fresh, but rather because Michell knows exactly
where to place the right amount of emphasis to elicit the tear-jerking sigh and
happily-ever-after evoked wink, nudge and smile. Comedy in general gets passed
over by the critics as ‘fluff stuff’ – vacuous, escapist and lacking in ‘general’
artistic importance. But I prefer another popular variant of a time-honored
show business adage: “Dying is easy. Comedy is hard!”
Notting Hill only seems effortless because Michell is working from
a superior script and has invested it with top-notch celebrity talent. With one
or the other, the movie might have still worked, but on some lesser level. With
all the pistons firing simultaneously, Notting Hill emerges as a joyful,
occasionally wacky, but always appropriately adult comedy of errors, the
principals having discovered their own genius in the exercise and able to
convey it without too many flaws showing. Some comedies are silly. Some are
crude. Notting Hill is a bit of each, but more incisive, evenly paced
and very much imbued with a sense of the miraculous in the everyday. Michell
and his stars get high marks for selling this bittersweet confection as high
art. It really isn’t, but we are entertained by it nonetheless and, in the
intervening decades, Notting Hill has remained perennially refreshing; a
no-nonsense romantic comedy with ‘feel good’ written all over it. Like the
fragrant elixir of one’s favorite perfume or cologne, one whiff of Notting
Hill is a reminder of just how wonderful life can be with the proper squire
to fire the heart, and how especially good romantic/comedies used to be!
Universal Home Video re-issues Notting Hill on
Blu-ray for a second time, but with the same disappointing transfer, culled
from old digital files, used to master the DVD in 2001. Doing direct side-by-side comparisons between
the two Blu-ray releases, inaccuracies are immediately identifiable and identical.
Opening credits exhibit a rather muddy patina, the Universal logo looking soft
and slightly out of focus, the white lettering used for the credits registering
a flat gray and a tad blurry. In the scene where Will takes Anna to his flat to
change her clothes after spilling his orange juice, we get the very same
manifestation of digital instability, the background information suffering from
a persistent strobe that mimics the distortion one might see during the old
analog days when an airplane flew overhead. This anomaly is reoccurring
throughout this presentation. On smaller monitors it won’t distract but it is
still quite obvious. Blown up in projection it looks positively ghastly! Colors can be vibrant at times. But the image
waffles between moments of razor-sharp crispness and a decidedly soft focus
that is not indigenous to the source elements. We lose fine detail and clarity
all at once. Notting Hill also lacks the natural texture of film grain -
another sign Uni has minted this disc from earlier preservation elements not
prepared with a true hi-def presentation in mind. Flesh tones lean toward a tad
pinkish – not in that awful and artificially enhanced ‘piggy pink’ we’ve seen
on other hi-def presentations, but still not satisfactorily natural. The 5.1
DTS audio is another cause for consternation. While dialogue is presented at a
mid-range listening level, the interjection of pop songs throughout the movie
blares at decibel levels usually referenced for big scale action sequences,
leaving the viewer in a constant flux with the remote control, toggling the
volume control up and down so as not to assault the eardrum. Badly done!
Extras are all imports from the old DVD and include 12-minutes
of deleted scenes, including a hilarious vignette where William attempts to
tell his parents about Anna. We also get
15 min. of ‘on location’ junket material billed as a ‘documentary’.
Honestly, there ought to be a law about misrepresenting PR sound bites as a
full-fledged ‘making of’! Finally, there’s 4 min. of Hugh Grant
schmoozing with his fellow actors, a 3 min. stroll down Portobello Road, and a
pair of music videos: Elvis Costello’s ‘She’ and Shania Twain’s ‘You’ve
Got a Way.’ Last, but not least, we
get a reprise of Michell, Curtis and producer, Duncan Kenworthy’s rather
self-congratulatory audio commentary. It’s okay, but does not really get into
the nuts and bolts of shooting the movie – more reflections on the fun and
camaraderie shared on the set. Bottom line: Notting Hill needs a new
scan in 4K and, preferably, a 4K release to coincide with its corrected
Blu-ray.
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)
4
VIDEO/AUDIO
2.5
EXTRAS
2
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