in roger michell's romantic comedy notting hill , william thacker ( hugh grant ) leads a rather dreary life maintaining his flagging travel bookshop in the quaint section of london which lends it's name to the film's title . one day , american movie superstar anna scott ( julia roberts ) walks in to purchase a book on turkey . quickly enamored of each other , the two embark upon an on-again , off-again love affair replete with romance , humor , and the occasional lump in the throat . the film opens with a non-verbal cue to anna's stardom as the title credits appear over a montage of slow motion sequences featuring the actress's appearances in films and at premieres - coming out of limousines , walking the red carpets and such . without words , this sequence gives us a background to her character . following , however , is a set-up narration by william indicating what he does and where he lives . i don't know why the filmmakers chose to go with a narration which tells us nothing we couldn't have figured out by watching the first ten minutes of film , and which never resurfaces after the movie's beginning , but there it is . if there were ever a clear case for " less is more , " this would be it . the film is told nearly first person from william's point of view , as he is in every scene . by nature of this arrangement , we get a very definite sense of what he is all about , and his nice guy personality wins us over easily . in fact , much of notting hill's strength lies in the great dialog written for this character by richard curtis . a scene where william is still in shock over the fact that he's even talking to a silver screen goddess is made golden by the way bumbles through his attempt to offer her some honey-soaked apricots from his refrigerator . or take an instance where anna kisses william and asks him never to tell anyone for fear of the incident hurting her image . william assures her he wouldn't say a word , then adds , " well , i'll probably tell myself now and then , but i'd never believe it . " great stuff . the downside to spending so much time with william is that we don't get to see enough of anna to make their relationship whole and plausible . we're constantly exposed to william's thoughts , feelings , actions and desires , but don't actually get the sense of how much anna really feels for him . there are a couple of instances where she declares her obvious interest , but they nearly come out of nowhere due to the fact that we're not sure what she's been thinking all the times in between . this , combined with the sheer iniquity of screen time between the two , makes this hugh grant's film hands down . he gets the great scenes ( look for one in which he has to portray an interviewer from horse and hound magazine in order to speak with anna ) , the great lines , and gives an overall wonderful performance . julia roberts fans will probably be disappointed by the actress's top billing and subsequent lack of involvement in the film ( ala sandra bullock in a time to kill ) along with her detached performance which is only worsened by her character's unpredictable behavior . anna doesn't get a lot of our compassion . this romantic comedy leans a little more toward the comedy than the romance , much of it supplied by grant himself , but with considerable help from the supporting cast . most notable is rhys ifans as spike , william's eccentric roommate , who is in the film for no other purpose than to make us laugh . hugh bonneville , emma chambers , james dreyfus , and gina mckee bring up the guard as william's friends and family , particularly shining in a scene where william brings anna to his sister's birthday dinner , and we get to see how these common folks react to the presence of a movie star in their midst . it's a scene most of us will probably think would play out in our own living rooms were we faced with a similar situation . roger michell's use of visuals doesn't sweep us off our feet , but does give us more than your typical movie of this type . for example , there are a couple of instances in this film where large amounts of time pass . whereas some films are content to simply put in a caption saying " eight months later , " michell presents us with more interesting cues , such as william's walk though his neighborhood while the seasons change around him . another memorable shot occurs in a park where the camera is lifted from ground level to a couple of hundred feet in the air . we're generally used to scenes where our point of view is lifted from the earth to treetop level or so , but in this case , the camera just keeps going up and up until we have a bird's eye view of the ground below . music is used rather glaringly as an enhancement to many of the film's scenes , and some of this might have been better toned down , but in other areas it works to full effect . it's kind of a mixed bag , but still fares better than many of today's lighthearted movies which are so influenced by the mtv fare that the film becomes one long music video . at least this film has some pretty good music that for the most part remains relevant and appropriate . notting hill's grant and roberts will not go down in history as one of the all-time greatest film pairings , but the chemistry is decent and the comedic aspects of the movie more than make up for it . for a couple of hours , you should expect to laugh more than cry , and that's not so bad , now is it ?
