Notting Hill

It is not often that a big budget romantic comedy exceeds expectations. Notting Hill is one such example. But it is NOT the big stars who have all the sparkle here, it is the supporting cast which is brilliant. I'm convinced this movie would have been just as good without two of the most recognizable people in the world playing lead roles. I'd love to see a movie with just the supporting cast.

I mean this of course, not as a slam against either mega-star, but as a compliment to South African Director Roger Michell (Changing Lanes and Venus). He has done outstanding work with this group of gifted funny people. His brainchild of having one main character walk from one end of the street to the other, while four seasons come and go, is great Hollywood eye candy.

Julia Roberts (Steel Magnolias, Sleeping With The Enemy, and Erin Brokovich) basically plays herself here, but does it so well, you can't help but love her. The scene with her leading man's family at a sister's birthday should ring true with all of us.

Hugh Grant (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Sense and Sensibility, and About a Boy) lives the fantasy of almost every man. A movie star walks into his little bookstore and over the course of the movie falls in love with him. We should all have such a bookstore.

Rhys Ifans (Vanity Fair and Hannibal Rising) plays Grant's doofus roommate, and make Seinfeld's Kramar seem like the perfect neighbor. He sets the stage of strange and wonderful characters all part of the bookstore owner's small world.

Despite this movie being credited with having delivering the stupidest line in movie history, the film is a smart as it is funny.

Watch it with someone who still says "Whoopsie daisy" if you can find one.